I have been involved in the luxury awards industry for close to 2 decades and in 2012 I felt it was time for a change.

The key to the success of any company is communication, however this has 3 aspects to it.

The first aspect is enquiring and collecting information.

The second aspect of communication consists of LISTENING and acting upon the demands of the people that took the time out of their day to give you the feedback.

The third step is implementing the changes, upgrades and requests.

For years there have been voices in the industry regarding awards.

“Oh they are fake” or “they want you to pay” and the list goes on with negative comments.

At Seven Stars Luxury Hospitality and Lifestyle Awards we truly pride ourselves in being a different kind of awards company.

The question was, how do move past the negativity that has been built for years upon years by other companies acting in unethical ways?

The answer was obvious.

• Erase costs
• showcase transparency
• increase credibility

Why should a hotelier PAY to be part of a awards program? How does that make any sense?

The usual answer was “processing fees”. Really? up to 1200 dollars of “processing fees per nominee? I think most will agree that it sounds a little much for a processing fee.

From its very inception, Seven Stars Luxury Hospitality and Lifestyle Awards had no nomination fees and this still stands true to this very day.

The hospitality industry, in terms of Hoteliers as well as the media, is much smarter than what some of these companies might think!

An Award is only useful if it is credible.

An award is a recognition of efforts and achievement.

Since when do you have to pay to have a chance to be recognized?

If s company wishes to be in the awards business, they should focus on doing exactly that. Award !

This should always be done in the most fair and transparent manner possible and by placing the players on an equal platform.

The main issue we had to overcome as a company was, how to show everyone that we mean what we say? As with everything else  “online”  was the answer.

We decided to reconfigure the backend of our system so as to provide access to all nominees.  This was, and remains, the only way to really show transparency and accentuate credibility, not just for our organization, but for the achievements of our winners.

Therefore, since 2015, nominees of the SSLHLA are able to access the very same statistics and information that we have access  to.

We give FULL control of the voting to our nominees.

If nominees send an email out to their clientele to infom them that they have been nominated, they will be able to see how many are responding and from which countries.

This provides important information and feedback for the Hoteliers.

Nominees are able to see where they currently stand in terms of rank within the competition and they are also able to alter the image of their property directly from the personal dashboard.

In a nutshell, this method was a long time coming and SSLHLA is very proud to be, not only, the first to implement it but also the only one to do so.

An easy way to really compare things is to see the following bullet points. Then proceed to do a checklist for other companies.

SSLHLA

• No nomination fee
• No self Nomination Fee
• No fee to receive the Nomination crest
• No fee for usage of winners or Nominees crests, no special conditions
• No fee to receive winners Crest
• No fee to attend the Gala ceremony
• No fee for F&B at the ceremony of any sort
• No fee for the winners plaque if one attends the Gala Ceremony
• Full transparency of votes
• individual user dashboard- no fee
• No mandatory marketing packages

there are countless hoteliers that are fed up with feeling like they have been taken advantage of.

An award should provide its recipients with:

• exclusivity
• transparency
• credibility
• no brand dilution- this refers to the common practice from awards companies to issue 20 or more awards in each country.

The usual rebuttal to the last point mentioned above is  ” its a different category”!

Ok sure so, you have the greatest boutique property, the greatest luxury boutique property ,the greatest luxury beach boutique property, XYZ country greatest hotel, XYZ country greatest Luxury Hotel, XYZ country greatest Luxury Business Hotel, XYZ Country greatest Luxury City Hotel and so on and so on. It is hard not to find it it ludicrous.

From 2013 up until the end of 2017, SSLHLA has issued only 1069 awards across the world and all sectors.  This is thanks to system of exclusivity that we implement.

That is the total amount of awards issued worldwide in 5 full years.

This is less than some awards companies do per year for just one continent

You also have instances just recently where a large online newswire reported that an awards company ,apparently, awarded what is now a refugee shelter in Germany as the top conference venue.

Awards are an extra.

Awards need to be useful.

Awards need to be  credible and make sense.

This is why we opt to work in sectors rather than categories.

We award only all round excellence.

the only awards which we issue that carry a specific category name are our “Special Awards”.

These are not voted for. These awards are issued directly from the Seven Stars Luxury Hospitality and Lifestyle Awards organization to companies that are of exceptional quality and for which there is no sector.

In addition each special award is unique. It is not per country or per continent.

Very few special awards are issued every year.

SSLHLA is not an award that everybody has nor is it an award that everyone can or will have.

I know this, to some, will sound like self promotion and to a certain extent it is.

This article is really for the Hoteliers and industry professionals that are fed up with the nonsense . This article is for the professionals that want a clean playing field that allows them to achieve true recognition for their efforts and achievements.

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and message me  if you have any questions or to comment