Hotel industry awards bonanza

Inaugural ceremony boost for Le Meridien Hotels

It was Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa’s night in Dubai as the hotel featured in six categories in the first Hotel Intelligence Middle East’s industry excellence awards.

Overall, Le Meridien Hotels scooped nine awards in seven categories – the most of any hotel group.

For Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa, top honours were awarded for ‘Best Hotel Design Project’ and ‘Best Hotel Health Spa’, with a ‘Highly Commended’ second place rating for ‘Best Hotel Suite’, "Most Environmentally Friendly Hotel’, ‘Best Hotel Restaurant Innovation’ and ‘Best PR & Marketing Campaign’.

In the latter category, the group swept the board with top place going to Le Meridien Abu Dhabi.

"We are delighted at this recognition by our industry peers, particularly achieving top position in so many different categories," said regional vice president, sales and marketing, Russel Sharpe. "International experts on the judging panel have reinforced the views of our customers – whose confidence in Le Meridien product has resulted in increased occupancies at our hotels throughout the region, and particularly in Dubai where we had a bumper year last year."

In the Best Spa category, Le Royal Meridien Bahrain won ‘High Commended’ second place to its sister property in Dubai, demonstrating the group’s timely move in to one of the travel industry’s growth areas.

And, in another boost for the group’s resort development, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina also won ‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Best Family Hotel’ category.

"One of our key brand values is innovation, and these awards have demonstrated this quality in all areas of hotel operations, justifying the confidence of local owners in Le Meridien management expertise," said Michel Noblet, regional managing director, Le Meridien Hotels.

The group currently operates 23 hotels in the Middle East and West Asia region, with a further five scheduled to open this year and another 14 under development.