Tara Lodge, Belfast and Lough Erne Resort have ‘cleaned up’ at the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation Housekeeping Awards 2016. It is a remarkable achievement for both properties since they won the title in 2015.
Ciaran O’Neill, President of NIHF with winners Marlena Kitka and Klaudia Sypula from Lough Erne Resort (left), Ernesta Šimanskaitė and Adriana Gręźlikowska from Tara Lodge (right)
Tara Lodge, Belfast were winners in the under 90 bedroom category with the runner up award going to The Bushmills Inn Hotel & Restaurant, while Lough Erne Resort won the over 90 bedroom category, with Europa Hotel, Belfast collecting the runner up title in this section. Congratulating winners and runners up Ciaran O’Neill, President of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation said: “For both winners and runners up this is a significant achievement. We launched an initiative to reward and recognise the Housekeeping Teams in hotels six years ago. The competition has gone from strength to strength since its inception and this year we had a record level of entries, with 35 teams taking part.
“The competition is designed to recognise housekeepers who make sure guests have a comfortable stay. They are the unseen heroines of the accommodation industry and interact with each guest in a very important way.”
Ciaran also said: “The contestants underwent a series of tasks including the dreaded rogue room, Olympic standard hoovering and the challenges of constructing a balloon tower. All the finalists received a surprise on-site inspection as part of the competition. I would also like to add that the judges commented on the exceptionally high levels of professionalism in 2016 adding that standards have risen considerably since we started the competition in 2010.” Thanking sponsors and judges, Janice Gault, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the judges who gave up their valuable time to participate in the various stages of the competition. Also, I want to recognise the support we received from a number of sponsors including Tourism Northern Ireland, Bunzl Rafferty Hospitality, Robinson Services, Ecolab and King Koil. Without their input this recognition event would not be possible.”