Warner Leisure Hotels scoops top industry award

Warner Leisure Hotels has scooped the award for Hotel Chain of the Year from top travel publication TTG (Travel Trade Gazette), beating off stiff competition from a number of well-known global brands including Conrad Hotels and Resorts and Swisshotel Hotels and Resorts.

Almost 40 judges, including some of the biggest names working in the travel industry were invited to assess the 169 entries that made it on to shortlists in 30 categories. The awards are widely regarded as being the most prestigious in the industry.

The award was presented to Warner Leisure Hotels’ managing director Jim Forward in a glittering ceremony held at Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London. It was a victorious night for the Hertfordshire-based leisure firm, with parent company Bourne Leisure also scooping the evening’s top award of Travel Company of the Year for over 100,000 passengers, and sister company Haven Holidays winning Domestic Operator of the Year.

Jim Forward commented: “We are delighted and honoured to have been voted Hotel Chain of the Year by such an influential group of industry experts. These annual awards are widely regarded as being the ‘Oscars’ of the travel industry.
“This award reflects Warner Leisure Hotels’ commitment to investing in and developing the experience of its guests in its portfolio of properties across the UK. We are in the middle of a multi-million pound development scheme throughout our group, ensuring that we continue to innovate and enhance our guest experience, as well as maintain our high standards of accommodation, facilities and customer care.”

Exclusively for adults, Warner Leisure Hotels’ enjoys an occupancy rate of 95% in its portfolio of 13 properties across the UK. As well as offering a wide choice and style of accommodation, each with its own personality, the hotel chain is renowned for its Experience Breaks, offering over 600 additional activities from hot air balloon trips and antiques with tv’s Eric Knowles to a Mini Cooper Treasure Hunt and numerous dance breaks.

John Dunford, director of Bourne Leisure concludes, “For a domestic operator to win this award is a major achievement. The secret of our success is an unrelenting focus on continually improving the guest experience across all our brands and the quality of our people who deliver that experience.”

From the majestic Thoresby Hall Hotel and Spa in Nottinghamshire, and the historic Littlecote House in Berkshire where Henry VIII courted Jane Seymour, through to Victorian character hotel Alvaston Hall in Cheshire with its own golf course, and Lakeside seaside resort on Hayling Island in Hampshire offering relaxed accommodation in a pretty traditional seaside location, there is a hotel or resort to suit every taste and style.

For further information, log on to Warnerleisurehotels.co.uk.