Travelbug Awards 2013 – here are your winners!

It’s that time again, time to announce the winners of this year’s Travelbug Awards! This is the third time we’ve given out these awards and we’re always stoked to be able to recognise excellent performance by accommodation operators. The the winners were selected based on the number of bookings made at each property, the quality of guest feedback, and the overall quality of their Travelbug listing and this year we had to make the criteria even tougher to make sure we only awarded the very best.

As you’ll know, we have the widest range of bookable accommodation in New Zealand and all properties – from holiday parks and backpackers to luxury lodges – are automatically eligible for the awards. There are five categories in the Travelbug Awards:

Ibis Budget Auckland Airport tops the list

It was a pleasing predicament to find ourselves in this year. When we applied the rules from the 2012 awards, we had too many winners and it didn’t feel as though we had a formula that gave us the cream of the crop. So we tightened the criteria for the second year running and less than 1% of properties achieved the highest accolade – the Platinum Award.

Deserving of special mention is Ibis Budget Auckland Airport, who was the Platinum property with the highest overall score. This property is one of a relatively new breed of hotels that tries to over-deliver on value despite small rooms and it’s popularity if proof of hotel manager Hayden Henderson’s claim that “Travelbug users love being able to stay close to the airport and save money for their holiday.”

The Travelbug Top 5

The top five New Zealand properties in the Travelbug “best of” list for 2013 were:

1. Ibis Budget Auckland Airport
2. The Devon Hotel and Conference Centre, New Plymouth
3. Copthorne Hotel Auckland City
4. Bay Plaza Hotel, Wellington
5. Ibis Wellington

Canterbury goes back-to-back with “100% Reviews”

Canterbury beat all other regions for a second year running as the region with the most 100% Reviews Awards with 32 (11% overall), closely followed by Wairarapa and Auckland with 27 each. Operators with a 100% “thumbs up” result across a minimum number of reviews received the award. We love helping travellers keep each other informed so this year we added the rule that all winners of the 100% reviews award must have a minimum number of bookings and 100% verified reviews.

Four accommodation providers received “Best in Region” awards for a second consecutive year: Victoria Hotel (Otago), Kuirau Park Motor Lodge (Rotorua), LivingSpace Invercargill (Southland), and Acorn Estate Motel (Masterton).

There are a huge range of properties across the country with staff and owners slaving away to provide top-class traveller experiences. We’re pleased to be able to give them a pat on the back for a job well done, not only in promoting their property, but promoting New Zealand to the rest of the world.

So who won? Here are the winners of the Best in Region and Platinum awards, plus the breakdown of the numbers of winners for each award.

Well done to all the winners, and happy travels!

Travelbug ‘Best in Region’ award winners 2013

Total winners in each category:

1. Platinum Property (20 winners) 
2. Gold Property (41 winners)
3. Best in Region (20 winners)
4. Best in District (89 winners)
5. 100% Guest Rating (279 winners)

Travelbug ‘Platinum’  award winners 2013