The winners of the Boutique Hotel Awards 2017 were announced on the 9th of November 2017 at a glittering Awards ceremony held at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, London where Pondoro won an award as Africa’s Best Honeymoon Hideaway. The ceremony brought together an array of boutique hotel owners, travel and lifestyle press and travel industry influencers from all four corners of the world, including representatives from CNN Travel, Elite Traveler , The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Boat International, Time Out and The Financial Times.
The Boutique Hotel Awards is the first and only international awards organisation exclusively dedicated to recognising unique excellence among boutique hotels. It is the only independent awards organisation in hospitality where each and every property is visited personally by an experienced hotel judge which specialises in each category. Winning an award depends on having true first-hand guest experience at the property. Winners were selected from over 600 Nominees in over 80 countries. Each entrant was nominated by a member of the Awards Nomination Committee, comprised of 70 leading trailblazing travel experts whose business it is to be in the know on the extraordinary boutique hotels. The Awards then coordinate hundreds of judge evaluation visits to each shortlisted nominee. The judges document all aspects of the guest experience covering five categories; dining and entertainment, design, facilities, location and most importantly staff service and overall emotional impact. These extensive hand-written evaluations are finally pored over by the Awards Panel who decide on the winners.
Winning this award is a huge honour and I want to make use of this opportunity to thank all our loyal staff who worked tirelessly throughout the year to provide our guests with the best possible service.
Robbie Prehn, Managing Director, Pondoro Game Lodge