A national online poll amongst travel agents voting in their thousands has named Rydges Hotels & Resorts New Zealand number one in New Zealand.
The hotel chain which consists of 5 hotels across New Zealand, won ‘Best Hotel Group’ category at the TAANZ National Travel Industry Awards announced at a black tie annual event before 600 guests at Sky City Grand last weekend.(Sept 30)
Danelle Ayers, National Sales and Marketing Director credited the win to having a team that are extremely passionate about what they do, know how to have fun while they do it and can truly connect with people.
“It’s about being real and not taking ourselves too seriously, our aim is to assist travel agents to ensure their lives are as easy as possible and we do that by being flexible, knowing our hotels, being prompt on emails, picking up the phone and getting things done with a minimum of fuss – you could say it’s old school style,” said Ayers.
Forget about run of the mill PowerPoint presentations, Rydges engage in a way that lifts the benchmark and captures the hearts and loyalty of the industry in the process. The Rydges team have the agents lining up to attend their updates with ideas like hilarious interactive memory games, cheeky ‘behind the scenes’ hotel movies, quirky ‘meet the GM’ jigsaw puzzles, cute dress-up themes, and even their very own Rydges virtual reality tours complete with branded Google cardboard headsets.
Not only are they engaging and interactive, they are also informative and memorable, which is the perfect way to impart information to a seasoned target audience who have seen it all.
From being a fairly unknown entity in the New Zealand market five years ago, award winning Rydges Hotels and Resorts New Zealand now operate six hotels and dominate the corporate, government and leisure sector.
‘Rydges is committed to giving our guests the best possible experience be it through our special concept restaurants such as Portlander, The Cut and Bloody Mary’s, complementary Wi-Fi, our loyalty program PGR and of course staff,’ said Norman Arundel, Director of Hotels, Event Hospitality & Entertainment. ‘Event is also committed to investing in the New Zealand market with Rydges Wellington Airport and QT Queenstown currently under construction.’
