Accolades or Awards are part of a segment of the hospitality industry for which there is still great demand despite so many new 5 star properties springing up all over the world.

You must ask yourself, what truly differentiates these properties from one another?

Many will say it is their level of service, some will say other things.

Brands have invested so much in creating their own signature of luxury, companies such as Four Seasons, St Regis, Ritz Carlton, Waldorf Astoria and their efforts have paid off as they are doing very well, however, when viewed from a consumers point of view things become a little cloudier.

The web is the window to the world regardless what industry you are in and when viewing hotels on the web, one always sees the same things, amazing rooms, beautiful restaurants, opulent décor, mentions of service excellence and so on.

With all these similarities, Hoteliers find themselves having a limited Arsenal at their disposal in terms of what can and can’t be said and this situation renders the battlefield almost too even for a true winner to emerge.
This is where Accolades come in.
In this instance an award is something that can truly differentiate one property or one group from another.

When an international body, with the correct backing and credibility, places their seal on a particular property or group it allows for a victor to emerge and provides the winning property with something unique that no one in the vicinity has.
Of course there are different factors to keep in mind.

The accolade should always be of benefit.

With benefit what I mean is exclusivity.

A lot of accolades around today are much diluted with far too many winners all over the world.

When the awarding brand is diluted the award carries no real weight as numerous other properties will carry the same award.

Some choose to label properties with numbers such as ” one of the 131 best resorts in ..”

Personally I disagree with all

Another factor to consider is that there is no point in winning an award and nobody knowing about it.

It is vital that the awarding company have the means to showcase its winners on multiple platforms and at the lowest possible cost in order to provide maximum benefit to winners.