The awards for Swiss hospitality were presented for the fourth time yesterday evening: during the ‘Switzerland Vacation Day’ in Lugano, Switzerland Tourism (ST) honoured the most welcoming Swiss hotels in five categories. The PRIX BIENVENU was given to the hotels with the highest scores in hospitality from online guest ratings and independent jury visits.

 

During the ‘Switzerland Vacation Day’, the largest conference of the Swiss travel industry with 1230 attendants this year in Lugano, Switzerland’s most welcoming hotels were awarded the PRIX BIENVENU. The award, embodied by a small bronze figure representing a concierge, stands for outstanding Swiss service quality and genuine hospitality.

 

The company TrustYou semantically evaluated the feedback submitted by several hundred thousand guests on more than 250 rating and booking platforms between January and December 2015. The analysis of the hotel evaluations focused on soft factors, such as the attention, warmth, empathy and helpfulness of the staff.

 

Swiss hotels with at least 70 guest reviews on rating websites automatically qualify for entry in the PRIX BIENVENU.

 

The finalists – the three highest rated hotels in five categories – were then personally visited and assessed by a member of the jury. The following five hotels won the the PRIX BIENVENU 2016 in their respective categories:

 

• Cosy leisure hotel (up to 40 rooms): Hotel Glocke, Reckingen (VS)
• Large leisure hotel (from 41 rooms): Hotel Walther Relais & Châteaux, Pontresina (GR)
• City hotel (up to 4-star Superior): Boutique Hotel La Rinascente, Locarno (TI)
• Luxury city hotel (5-star / 5-star Superior): Four Seasons Hotel Des Bergues, Geneva (GE)
• Luxury hotel (5-star / 5-star Superior): CERVO Mountain Boutique Resort, Zermatt (VS)

 

First awarded in 2013, the PRIX BIENVENU was created by Switzerland Tourism (ST), hotelleriesuisse, GastroSuisse, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) and the University of Bern.

 

PRIX BIENVENU jury members.

• hotelleriesuisse: Thomas Allemann, Head of Member Services and Hotel Classification
• GastroSuisse: Daniel C. Jung, Vice-Director
• Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL): Prof. Michel Rochat, Director
• University of Bern/CRED: Dr. Monika Bandi Tanner, Head of Tourism Research Unit
• Kurt Aeschbacher: TV and chat show host
• Switzerland Tourism: Jürg Schmid, Director
• Swisscard AECS: Marcel Bührer, CEO

‘Presenting Partner’ American Express.

As ‘Presenting Partner’ American Express will waive its commission on credit card bookings at the five winning hotels up to a maximum of CHF 10,000 for the rest of the year and integrate the hotels into its online platform americanexpress.com/selects.

 

Hospitality as the key criteria for the quality of Swiss accommodation.

Online rating platforms play an important role for accommodation providers: guests express their opinion very clearly, representing an indicator of their performance to hoteliers. For the top-rated hotels, the feedback portals also offer a free and credible shop window with a global advertising impact.

 

About TrustYou.

TrustYou is a company specialising in reputation analysis and online reputation management. The indicator developed by TrustYou is known as the “TrustScore”, the first independent index that aggregates online guest ratings from around the world into a single figure. More information at www.trustyou.com

 

Complete list of the 100 most welcoming hotels in Switzerland: MySwitzerland.com/bienvenu

 

Photos of the PRIX BIENVENU awards ceremony: STnet.ch/ftbilder

Images of the winning hotels can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/BIENVENU_16.

 

For more information, please contact: media.northamerica@switzerland.com