Entries for the third annual Boutique Hotel Guest Experience Awards, fondly referred to as the BoHos, have officially opened as of 01 December, 2018! Hotels from around the world can now register to be part of the prestigious awards.
Unlike other hospitality awards, where winners are often determined either by panels of judges, industry critics, or by popularity on social media, the winners of the BoHos are determined entirely by feedback from participating hotels’ own guests. As GuestRevu Co-Founder, and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Francine Heywood, explains: “It’s an opportunity for hotels to shine based on what their guests experience, and what their guests say about them.”
GuestRevu has been a proud partner of the Boutique Hotel Guest Experience Awards from their inception, and will once again be providing entrants who don’t already have a guest feedback technology partner with the opportunity to use its solution free of charge throughout the duration of the Awards’ registration and data collection period.
“There are a lot of awards which acknowledge the hotel’s hard work, but to actually be acknowledged by the guests is amazing.” — Sinéad Tierney, Tara Lodge
Francine is looking forward to seeing the Awards grow from strength to strength. “The BoHos are such an exciting initiative, and it’s wonderful to see how they have advanced, and continue to do so. For example, this year we’re introducing new categories to give brands and groups of properties the opportunity to shine, and we’re hoping to expand that even further in years to come.”
The addition of two categories for Best Group Brand are not the only exciting changes that this year’s BoHo Awards have in store. International Hospitality Media (IHM) and GuestRevu, who partnered to create the inaugural Awards and have worked together since then, will be joined by Bournemouth University as the educational partner for the 2019 Awards.
“It’s an opportunity for hotels to shine based on what their guests experience, and what their guests say about them.” — Francine Heywood
“We are delighted to work with [IHM], the leading hospitality industry publisher, and to support the BoHo Awards,” said Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Head of Bournemouth University’s Department of Tourism and Hospitality. “This partnership will bring multiple benefits to all [University] stakeholders, and will help identify best practice in boutique hotels around the world.”
The role of educational partner is a vital one to the Awards, as Bournemouth University will be collating, assessing and analysing the online reviews and direct guest feedback for the properties who enter the BoHo Awards to unveil which hotels are providing exceptional guest experiences around the world.
As Piers Brown, CEO of IHM, has pointed out in the past, “the fact that the awards are judged on guest feedback means that every single member of staff at the winning properties has played their part in their success.” Previous winners of the Awards could not agree more. As Johnson Joseph of the 2017 and 2018 BoHo Award-winning Lalit London explained: “This is a reward to the team who has consistently gone above and beyond on a daily basis to ensure our guests have truly memorable stays with us.”
“This is a reward to the team who has consistently gone above and beyond on a daily basis to ensure our guests have truly memorable stays with us.” — Johnson Joseph, The Lalit London
“There are a lot of awards which acknowledge the hotel’s hard work, but to actually be acknowledged by the guests is amazing,” agrees Sinéad Tierney of Tara Lodge, a BoHo Award winner, not only in its individual category, but as Best Hotel UK as well in the 2018 Awards.
“Although we are grateful for the many other awards [we have] won in the past year,” explains fellow 2018 BoHo Award winner, James Howarth, of Dunalastair Hotel Suites, “this award occupies a special spot in our display cabinet at the hotel.”
Entries for the 2019 BoHos will be open from 01 December, 2018 to 31 January, 2019, and data collection will run from 01 February to 30 April 2019. The winners will then be announced at an awards ceremony during the Boutique + Lifestyle Hotel Summit taking place in London, in June 2019. For more details, please visit the BoHo Awards website.
For more information about the awards entry or evaluation process please contact Francine Heywood at francine@guestrevu.com. For more information about the awards ceremony and the Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel Summit please contact Helena Mubiru at helena@internationalhospitality.media.
About Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel Summit
Now in its seventh year, the Boutique + Lifestyle Hotel Summit is the leading educational and networking conference and exhibition of its type in Europe. Attracting owners, operators and service providers from across the continent and beyond, the Summit features a stellar cast of industry leading speakers and a comprehensive thought-provoking agenda covering all aspects of the sector. www.boutiquehotelsummit.com
About GuestRevu
GuestRevu helps hospitality professionals to listen to, learn and earn from their guests by enabling them to leverage the power of their guest data to build lasting loyalty and drive revenue. GuestRevu’s mission is to give hospitality professionals tools they can use every day to develop a guest-centric culture, optimise their guest experience, the running of their business and, ultimately, to drive revenue using online surveys and reputation management. GuestRevu offers local support in South Africa and the UK, and is a TripAdvisor Platinum Review Collection Partner.
About Bournemouth University
As one of the top universities in the world for the study of tourism and hospitality, Bournemouth University is recognised globally as a leading contributor to knowledge creation and dissemination. The combination of staff expertise and enthusiasm, knowledge excellence, and co-creation with industry leaders generates innovation and best professional practice through constant interaction and engagement. Bournemouth University’s approach is about creating value with everyone they work with, locally and globally, and to share the benefits with society.
