Golden Year for New Zealand Properties at Choice Hotels Awards
A cluster of New Zealand properties have struck gold at this year’s Choice Hotels Awards which were announced at a
prestigious awards ceremony held in Darwin last night.
Four notable properties: Econo Lodge Napier, Quality Hotel Emerald (Gisborne), Quality Hotel Parnell (Auckland) and
Quality Hotel Wellington each won a Gold Award. A Choice Hotels Gold Award recognises excellence in such business areas
as branding, marketing, customer relations, franchisor relations and training and development.
Four outstanding New Zealand employees were also celebrated with a Champions of Choice Award at the 2013 awards. From a
large pool of people at Choice Hotels’ 270 properties across Australasia, just 22 highly coveted Champions of Choice
Awards are given to outstanding hotel employees each year.
The recipients were: Olivier Lacoua, General Manager of Comfort and Quality Hotels in Wellington; Wayne Derbyshire,
General Manger of Quality Hotel Parnell in Auckland; Jeremy Bayliss, General Manager of Econo Lodge Napier; and Hammond
Cardon, General Manager of Quality Hotel Lincoln Green in Auckland.
Olivier Lacoua and Wayne Derbyshire also made the Champion of Choice Honour Roll, awarded to only the very best in the
Champions of Choice category. They joined five Australian managers who also achieved the honour roll status in this
year’s awards.
It is the second year running Olivier Lacoua has been awarded a Champions of Choice accolade and the third year Quality
Hotel Wellington has won a Gold Award. The property also picked up the prestigious Quality Hotel Franchisee of the Year
award in 2011.
Choice Hotels Australasia CEO, Trent Fraser, said; “Our New Zealand properties have well and truly punched above their
weight in this year’s awards to take away an impressive amount of metal.
It’s a real credit to their leadership, but we know it also takes the consistent dedication and commitment of a whole
team of great people to deliver customer service and excellence day after day in our industry. These teams are to be
applauded.”
Four Australian properties received the ultimate awards recognition by achieving the title of Franchisee of the Year in
their property categories across Australasia. These were; Econo Lodge Moree Spa Motor in (Moree, NSW), Comfort Hotel
Perth City (Perth, WA), Quality Hotel Platinum International (Toowoomba, QLD) and Clarion Hotel City Park Grand
(Launceston, TAS).
All award-winning hotels were nominated and judged by an executive panel of members from Choice Hotels’ Senior
Management and Franchise Services Team.
The awards were announced and presented at a ’Night of White’ awards dinner at SkyCity Darwin in Australia on Wednesday
night, which was the culmination of Choice Hotels’ annual conference. Held at the Darwin Convention Centre, the
conference included four days of interactive workshops, fun social events and informative keynote speakers Mark Bouris,
fresh from the set of Celebrity Apprentice, and Craig Davidson from Tourism Australia.
For further information on Choice Hotels visit www.choicehotels.co.nz
ENDS