All seven Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts were awarded AIM at Gold level following a tight inspection against 50 set pieces of criteria including Business Planning, Customer Environment, Booking Process, Pricing and Service Delivery.
Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, the upscale, contemporary hotel brand owned by PPHE Hotel Group, has become the first full portfolio of hotels to be awarded AIM Gold, the highest level of the industry’s national standard, in recognition of its meetings facilities and services across the UK.
All seven Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts were awarded AIM at Gold level following a tight inspection against 50 set pieces of criteria including Business Planning, Customer Environment, Booking Process, Pricing and Service Delivery. The hotels awarded AIM Gold are Park Plaza County Hall London, Park Plaza Leeds, Park Plaza Nottingham, Park Plaza Riverbank London, Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes London, Park Plaza Victoria London and Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London.
Greg Hegarty, Regional General Manager UK, PPHE Hotel Group commented: “A great deal of time, dedication and effort has gone into working towards this prestigious achievement and I am delighted to not only see the individual hotels awarded AIM Gold, but also to be the first hotel group. Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts’ properties pride themselves on providing excellent meeting space and service at competitive prices and our city-centre locations prove ideal for the inbound events market.”
AIM is administered by the meetings industry association (mia) Jane Longhurst, mia chief executive, added: “To be awarded AIM Gold is a significant achievement for any meetings and events venue. We have worked closely with PPHE Hotel Group in the UK for the past six years as members of the mia, so I am personally delighted to see the group become the first hotel company to be awarded AIM Gold, more and more venue and hotel groups are recognising the benefits AIM offers in terms of competitive advantage. Now that they are all ‘AIM Gold venues’ bookers and planners who don’t have experience of the Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts’ product can be assured that they will receive the highest level of quality facilities, high-spec technology and equipment, with exceptional catering and superior customer service.”
ParalympicsGB selected Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London as the launch base ahead of the London 2012 Games. Vanessa Harlow, Events Manager, ParalympicsGB spoke of the venue, “We chose Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London to host our pre Games team launch event which included the attendance of approximately 300 ParaylmpicsGB athletes. The hotel provided dedicated event space including the ballroom which houses up to 1,400 guests for the launch media interviews, while also serving as the base for athletes to collect their kits.“
Harlow continued, “Elements of the weekend were relatively complicated such as the rooming list given our accessibility requirements but the Meetings & Events team at the hotel managed superbly making the whole process very smooth. The ParalympicsGB team particularly commented on the high standard of food and quality of the bedrooms. It was an incredibly successful weekend for ParalympicsGB and the staff and facilities at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London played a huge part in this.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
