Hotel grabs two catering Oscars (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Hotel grabs two catering Oscars

CHIPPING Campden's Cotswold House Hotel has scored a double success at the national hospitality awards.

The Catey awards, known as the catering industry Oscars, voted it the Independent Hotel of the Year and the winner of the Best Independent Marketing Campaign for managing to increase overseas sales by 19 per cent.

All the judges cited the hands-on approach of owners Christa and Ian Taylor as a big contributor to the business's success, which started in 1999 when the Taylors bought the Regency townhouse property. They have been refurbishing, adding rooms and introducing customer-focused innovations ever since.

The panel praised qualities such as innovation, customer service and attention to detail. One of the judges, Richard Ball, described the Taylors' achievement as "quite extraordinary" and said they had transformed the hotel.

"All of the rooms are full of the wow factor," he said. "It's a hotel that's really going places." Fellow judge Jill Crawshaw, a freelance journalist for the Times, said: "It's not easy with town-centre hotels, as you are quite limited with what you can do, but it was excellent from start to finish," she said.

Ian Taylor said: "We're overwhelmed with our successes last night and feel terribly proud to be the first hotel in so many years to win two awards. It's been a lot of very hard work to not only create the type of hotel we had in our sights, but also ensure we were executing a sound marketing strategy that was going to make a real difference to sales.

"These fantastic awards just prove to us that it was all worth it and that a clear and dedicated marketing strategy has visible benefits. We shall be celebrating for some time to come."

The awards are run by the Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine.