Pay to play
With entry to awards increasingly charged for, are they really the best judge of quality?
Ahotel general manager recently asked me what I thought about awards. He explained that he wasn’t thinking of a New Year’s Honour, but had been under some pressure from his directors to garner a few awards for his property. “A little more silver in the cupboard than Arsenal has earned,” is what they had apparently said. The solution was simple: I told him to buy some recognition – it’s dead easy. All a hotel has to do nowadays is to pay for registration to a company that gives awards out.
Admittedly there is a vetting process, but the quantity of awards available through various categories and the number of presentations made makes it extremely likely that a property will pick something up. There are divisions by region, country and district. There are sections devoted to star rating, hotel facilities, dining. If all else fails, you can get an award for recycling, saving the environment, going green or investing in people. The plethora of opportunities to gain recognition has broadened to such an extent that the business traveller must struggle to evaluate the merits of one award against another. Of course, the huge advantage is that subscribing hotels can easily win given that the field is wholly limited to only those that donate.
Hotels must pay to register to be in with a chance of recognition from bodies such as the World Luxury Hotel Awards, the International Hotel Awards or Hotel of the Year Awards. Fees range annually from £625 to £890. Hoteliers can then add to that the price of buying a table at the awards ceremony and paying for all sorts of additional marketing and promotional material. Many of these companies also suggest that a chance of success is more easily assured if the hotel pays for a mystery judge to visit the property, and one even requires a free three-night stay that it can use with its marketing partners.
FREE FOR ALL
There are, of course, more honourable awards. This magazine, along with a select few others, chooses to offer awards based on genuine polling and at no fee. Being truly elected by readers, the trophy can be proudly displayed in the hotel’s silver cabinet. However, even awards voted for by travellers themselves are vulnerable to the Svengali marketing executive out to impress senior management. There have been some underhand methods at play. Take, for example, the notice I saw at a hotel in Key West: “If you have something nice to say about us, don’t write to the management, write to Trip Advisor recommending us for Best Small Hotel.” Or better still, take the example of a hotel in Dubai that positioned a number of iPads on stands around the property, which displayed the nomination page requesting the casual passer-by to recommend them for inclusion in a travel magazine’s awards. Then there’s the direct approach by personal email to request endorsement: “If you enjoyed your stay with us, click on this link…”
All of this, of course, deeply offends those who choose to operate an award system that holds the moral high ground of impartiality. Wrongdoers, when caught by the judges, will be, in electronic terms, deleted.
Companies making profit from hotel classification and awards also include the worldwide motoring organisations. In the UK, the AA advises that you can be awarded red stars and dining rosettes if you join its evaluation scheme and additionally offers (at a price) training and consultation on the best practice to get an award. In the US, awards are made by the AAA if you pay an evaluation fee of US$200, and those who don’t win pay US$400 for the same privilege the following year, should they still want to enter. If you really want to promote your hotel, you can then buy space in its publications and websites to display your accolade. I am not able to establish the tariff for failing a third time.
For the business traveller does any of this make much difference? Clearly those companies engaged in giving awards believe it does. If you don’t think it matters at all, take solace from research at Cornell University, which tends to the view that better than an award is a series of positive recommendations posted on one of the booking sites. To contradict that from the hotel owner’s perspective, goodwill on the asset sheet still appears best measured in trophies rather than customer comment. Hotel values seem to increase where consistent performance at award ceremonies demonstrates a great product, service and facilities. It’s just a question of whether it’s been paid for it.
The solution was simple: I told him to buy some recognition – it’s dead easy