Australia and New Zealand's largest hotel operator, AccorHotels, has collected 11 coveted award wins at the 2017 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence held at Sydney Town Hall on Friday night (1 September). The night ended on a high note with Simon McGrath, AccorHotels’ Chief Operating Officer Pacific, being honoured as HM Magazine Australian Hotelier of the Year.
ibis Adelaide was crowned Economy Property of the Year, marking its second win in this category, whilst the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour took home New Zealand Hotel of the Year. AccorHotels CSR efforts were also acknowledged as the company claimed the Service to the Community accolade for Race to Survive Fiji.
Highly Commended Awards were issues to AccorHotels (Hotel Chain of the Year), along with Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains MGallery by Sofitel (Regional Property) and Novotel Barossa Valley Resort (Environmental Program).
AccorHotels prevailed in the People Award categories with the coveted Rising Star Award going to Marty Lamont from Ibis Budget, whilst the Communications Associate of the Year category was taken home by AccorHotels Pacific Communication team; Ginni Post, Angela Cowley and Madeline Georgiadis.
Other wins of the night included; Nancye Pirini, Novotel Auckland Airport (Hotel Chef of the Year), Tat Wai Ho, Mercure Sydney International Airport (Finance Associate of the Year), Richard Phillips, Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort (Hotel Engineer of the Year) and Philip Hilton, Novotel and ibis Wellington (New Zealand General Manager of the Year).
The following individuals were acknowledged as highly commended; Joleen Hurst, Mercure Sydney Parramatta (Australian General Manager) Josh Askew, Swissotel Sydney (Hotel Chef) Aleisha Zuvela, Fairmont Blue Mountains (HR Associate), Barbara Liu, Pullman Sydney Airport (Finance Associate), Chris James, Sofitel Auckland (Revenue Management Associate), Julie Lang, Mercure Penrith (Front Office Associate).
“We are honoured to have received such an outstanding array of accolades at this year’s HM Awards. Last year we celebrated our 25th year of operation in Australia and we are so proud of how far we have come. We pride ourselves on our customer service and the customer journey, and it is our employees that make AccorHotels such a special place to work and it is great to see so many of our staff recognised at this year’s awards," said Chief Operating Officer AccorHotels Pacific, Simon McGrath.
