CLARE HOTELS came out on top at the 33rd annual Hotel & Catering ‘Gold Medal Awards in Galway recently.

The Flynn Hotel Collection (of which the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis is a member) has been honoured with the Irish hospitality industry’s highest accolade. The Flynn owned Imperial Hotel in Cork was announced as the overall ‘Supreme Winner’ at a gala event which is considered to be the ‘Oscars’ of the Irish hospitality world.

The Armada Hotel was awarded the Gold medal for the Best 4 star hotel in Ireland, at the ceremony hosted by Anne Doyle. The awards, sponsored by Virgin Media Business, is the leading independent awards programme for the Irish hospitality industry.

This year’s Gold Medal Awards was hotly contested with judges receiving over 460 entries from across the country. The judging process involves benchmarking against a strict set of criteria and a mystery guest visit to each property to determine the shortlisted finalists in a variety of categories.

The ‘Supreme’ award is then chosen following a review of all the winning entries, crowning one hotel as the best of the best.

It was a truly rewarding night all round as The Imperial also won a silver medal for ‘Ireland’s Guest Experience’, for innovation including the development of guest experience managers, a Director of Welcomes and extra special touches and surprises during the guests stay; a silver award for ‘Ireland’s Hotel Breakfast’ for their gorgeous birdcage breakfasts which are created around ‘waste not want not’; and the Flynn Hotel Collection scooped the gold medal award for ‘Ireland’s Hotel Group’.

The Flynn Hotel Collection is made up of 4 unique family heritage properties including the Imperial Hotel Cork, Old Ground Hotel Ennis, Newpark Hotel Kilkenny and Park Hotel Dungarvan, which offers something suitable for every guest.

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