The very first ever SiteMinder Partner of the Year awards were handed down in November 2021, in a milestone moment for the worthy winners.
With six awards given out across two categories, it was a chance to illustrate and reward the impact SiteMinder’s partners have on the industry, and demonstrate the value they offer to hoteliers around the world.
The categories and awards announced included:
Excellence Awards
- Innovation Partner of the Year
- Industry Champion of the Year
- Rising Star of the Year
Performance awards
- PMS Partner of the Year
- Expert Partner of the Year
- App Partner of the Year
Now let’s check out the results and hear from some of our winners.
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SiteMinder’s Excellence awards: Winners
The Excellence Awards were all about recognising new ideas, creative solutions, and dedication. These awards required submissions and were judged by a panel of industry leaders.
With hot competition apparent even in the first year of awards, the winners were well justified.
Innovation Partner of the Year
This was awarded to RevenYou, a consultancy for independent hotels, for an ingenious solution to battling revenue challenges during the pandemic.
At the height of COVID-19, RevenYou turned the car park at Hotel 115 in Christchurch, New Zealand, into bookable inventory. The transformation involved uploading the hotel’s 13 car spaces as rooms into the property management system and, using SiteMinder as a room distributor, making the spaces bookable through the hotel’s online chatbot. Today, Hotel 115’s car park averages 90 percent occupancy to provide a steady stream of revenue.
CEO and Founder Tamie Matthews said there was plenty of motivation to apply for SiteMinder’s awards.
“Being able to put such news items on your website and link your brand, website and social media with another reputable brand and website helps with ranking and visibility. It really does help grow a small business in so many ways. I really like the option of the Innovation Award as our work creating the Car Park room type was quite different and not something I had seen done before.”
Industry Champion of the Year
My Revenue in Colombia took out the Industry champion award, thanks to an unwavering commitment to the industry in 2021, which included the launch of 12 learning modules of its revenue management system to support more than 100 hotels in reopening, and designed a virtual university to train hoteliers in the areas of pricing, revenue management and healthy guests.
Rising Star of the Year
The brightest rising star in 2021 was RoomPriceGenie, based in Switzerland, acknowledged for its tireless pursuit of revenue management education amongst independent hoteliers.
In 2021, RoomPriceGenie launched a hotel academy, daily pricing emails, and a concierge service for hoteliers needing help with their pricing strategy.
Ari Andricopoulos, CEO of the company, said the awards opportunity was something they always wanted to be a part of.
“We see SiteMinder as an inspiration; with their combination of great product, continued innovation, and great service that has made them the undisputed global leaders in their field. Through good and bad times they have been great partners to us.”
SiteMinder’s Performance Awards: Winners
These awards were decided on a points-based criteria, with all partners in the relevant categories automatically eligible.
This saw the following winners rise to the top:
- PMS Partner of the Year
3RPMS, Germany - Expert Partner of the Year
TrevPAR World, South Africa - App Partner of the Year
Oaky, the Netherlands
Winning a performance award is a real badge of honour for SiteMinder’s partners, as CEO at TrevPAR world Derek Martin explained.
“Winning this award with SiteMinder has really validated the hard work and growth we have put in at TrevPAR World; it is great to be recognised by such an awesome company as we are always striving to partner with the best and modern thinkers!’
For Clément Dénarié, Head of Partnerships at Oaky, it was a feeling of validation.
“Winning this award is a great recognition of the hard work that the whole Oaky team has put in the last year. It will allow us to double down on the investment that we have made on connectivity. Our objective is to continue serving local and global hotels and hotel chains by providing them the best upselling engine possible. Now more than ever, hotels need to make more with less.”
Thanks and congratulations again to all the participants and winners of SiteMinder’s inaugural Partner of the Year awards. We’re already looking forward to next year!
