Small Luxury Hotels of the World™ (SLH) has announced Dormy House Hotel in the Cotswolds, UK, as Hotel of the Year at the SLH Awards 2017. Described as ‘very nearly perfect’, it is one of thirteen hotels in SLH’s 500-strong portfolio of independently minded hotels that were honored with awards at the luxury brand’s International Conference in California last week. The awards highlighted excellence in everything from notable staff and noteworthy suites, to their embracing of social media and the local community. With SLH properties being so aligned with our travel desires at LuxeGetaways where the attention to detail and overall boutique feel is vital to each hotel experience, we wanted to take a moment to recognize these exceptional SLH properties for their achievements.

For the first time, exclusively members of SLH’s loyalty program, INVITED, and luxury travel agents voted for many of the experiential categories. These included the Refinery New York (City Hotel of the Year), Baros Maldives (Resort Hotel of the Year) and Dormy House Hotel (Country House Hotel of the Year), which were then put forward for the ultimate accolade – Hotel of the Year. Meanwhile, immersive spa Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda, two Michelin-starred ABaC Restaurant & Hotel in Barcelona and137 Pillars Suites Bangkok were all deemed by SLH guests and agents to have the best spa, restaurant and suites respectively, and Casta Diva Resort & Spa on Lake Como was voted Most Romantic Retreat.

Member hotels were invited to enter the awards designed to applaud their own innovation and high levels of service:

akyra Manor Chiang Mai in Thailand received the Love of Local award based on its ‘give back’ policy, working with the local community not only to source products but also assisting local schools

Giovanni Sanchez, a waiter at The Arch London’s Hunter 486 restaurant was awarded the Hotel Hero award, thanks to his bespoke and consistent excellence, extensively acknowledged by both colleagues and guests

Owl and the Pussycat Hotel in Sri Lanka received the Most Instagrammable award based on its daily posts of an imaginary travel journal that travels into the nonsensical world of Edward Lear

Grand Hôtel du Palais Royal in Paris was awarded Best Hotel Video for a ‘work of art’ featuring Royal Swedish Ballet dancer Casia Vengoecha

SLH’s infamous Mystery Inspectors also had their say based on their experiences whilst staying at each and every one of SLH hotels over the last twelve months, with Casas Del XVI in the Dominican Republic coming out top based on a combination of guest reviews, inspection scores and overall quality rating.

Also new for this year was an award to recognize a significant newcomer to the SLH family – this year Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay was the outstanding winner. Since opening in June, the hotel has received an unprecedented level of interest, press coverage and reservations.

Filip Boyen, CEO of Small Luxury Hotels of the World™ said: “As curators of the very best small, luxury hotel experiences around the world, we are delighted to recognise these exceptional hotels that showcase our independently minded ethos in such a variety of creative, classy and culturally-relevant ways.”