BUSINESS & INDUSTRY in SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND'S
h o t e l
h o n o u r s
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The Fully-Researched Hotel Awards.™
RESULTS & AWARDS NIGHT PICTURES
➦Picture Galleries on Facebook
➦Full Results 2025
➦PDF
Supporting Active Membership
H I G H L I G H T S F R O M A W A R D S N I G H T 2 0 2 5
Lots of lovely pictures now in 4 galleries on
➦Facebook
*A new Picture Gallery page will be live this week
P R E M I E R 2 0 2 5 S P O N S O R
W E L C O M E
H O T E L S O F T H E Y E A R® S C O T L A N D
H O T E L P E O P L E O F T H E Y E A R™ S C O T L A N D
Scottish Tourism Minister
➦Richard Lochhead MSP
opened the 21st anniversary Awards Night on 26 February:
"It's a privilege to join so many hotel businesses from all parts of Scotland at the prestigious Hotels of the Year awards. You represent the best of Scotland, the best of excellence and experience."
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S T A R T I N G Y O U R S E A S O N
W I T H A W I N N I N G G L O W
National
Hotels of the Year® Scotland recently
proudly presented the 2025 Hotel Honours™ for success, achievement and distinction. Research and judging was continuous, with visits being made until the 11th hour. Thank you to everyone who attended, making the occasion all that it was...
fabulous!
Our 21st anniversary
Awards Night partnered an exciting
ScotHot 2025 -
where our Chef of the Year trophy was presented on the
Scottish Tourism Alliance
stage after our
➦President had led a Spotlight Session.
NEXT!
The
2025 Summer Awards including the
Hotel People of the Year™ Scotland
is in
June: hundreds of individuals are already included! Plus we'll soon have hotel reviews, offers and more on the dynamic new
➦BestHotels.scot
as our expanded 2025 program shapes up to be very busy!
➦Info Hub
➦2025 Results Hub
➦Winner Logos & Trophy Upgrade
#HOTYS are
fully-researched, with 22 years' commitment to hospitality to draw upon. Our honours are founded on observation over years, informed by mystery visits, BestShot™ visits, interviews, expert advice and guest feedback analysis. We've a warm appreciation of our industry's many remarkable, storied people and, by shining a light on the inspirational, help to show how we can all win.
Nominate: PEOPLE
➦here
Nominate: HOTELS
➦here
People
are the heart of this awards program. From 2026
all
individuals: owners, management, staff and chefs at all levels, Hotelier of the Year, The Fellowship, HospitalityHearts™ and all personal Industry Honours will be presented at The Scottish Hotel People of the Year™ Awards on the first Sunday in June.
Wishing your Hotel & Team a Winning Season 2025!
Gary McLean Quin, Chairman
➦A Personal Hello
Vivien Devlin, Deputy Chairman
★
➦Meet the full 2025 Team
★
William Gorol, President
Lady Claire Macdonald OBE, Patron
L O V E L Y 2 0 2 5 L O G O S
▲
Examples of Winner & Member logos
S H O W O F F Y O U R S U C C E S S !
*Logos to download | Use guidelines | Copyright policy
*Trophies: Upgrade your achievement | Replace
*Medals, Certificates: Replace | Enhance
➦2025 Logos Trophies & more
ALL GO FOR '25
I N T R O D U C I N G T H E
SCOTTISH HOTELS SUPPORT PROGRAM
LATEST - MARCH 2025
After the excitement of Awards Night, there's no let-up!
Supporting Active Membership is open. The
2025
Hotel People of the Year™ Scotland Awards
on 1st June will be a fantastic new development! By next year every single individual / personal honour will have moved to that event - giving us one grand occasion, #HOTYS Awards Night, to celebrate hotel businesses... and one sparkling Summer Awards Celebration when we can focus on honouring in style hotel people of every single kind. Research & Review visits are now underway for the new #SHPA as we search out this year's winners - with every one being interviewed, met and known to our expanded team.
EXCITING REVIEW SITE PROGRESS
A new consumer site from us will showcase award winners and all best Scottish hotels, and it'll be live at
➦BestHotels.scot from spring. We've just revealed its attractive and flexible
Blue Hotel Plaque ratings system. It'll have Trending & Top 10-themed lists, reviews, awards results from other leading guides, features, links to hotel offers and
own booking system, and more. Integrated with busy social media, it'll be a central part of the full program. Supportive Active Program Members - who will have their own page on the guide, plus Region or National Winner links on this very site, can choose a Blue Hotel Plaque rating sign / logo - nice to have, now VisitScotland has ended star ratings.
SOCIAL MEDIA
F A C E B O O K
➦National Hotels of the Year - Scotland
T W I T T E R / X
➦@HotelsOfTheYear
I N S T A G R A M
➦@hotelsoftheyear.scot
F A C E B O O K G R O U P S
➦Scottish Hotels Support Group
Formerly the Covid Help + Support group
➦Hotel & Hospitality Jobs in Scotland
Founded by Renata Fernandes
YEAR~ROUND
SUPPORTING SCOTTISH HOTELS
2025 marks 22 years since our lead Judging Team's very first planning get-together back in 2003 - at the Apex International in Edinburgh. Today, we look forward to working with faces familiar and new as we work to enhance the awards and review site.
26TH FEBRUARY 2025
Thanks to you...
IT WAS A REAL RED CARPET NIGHT
The big Awards Night 2025 ~ Grand Gala Dinner
was on
26th February at the
Crowne Plaza SEC Glasgow - as partner of ScotHot 2025. The dinner was the big evening event between the two days of ScotHot - adding excitement and convenience! And, in a deserving new development, The
Scottish Hotel People of the Year™ 2025 Awards
will be held as a separate, full partner event on 1st June as we inaugurate this core new celebration of people.
1ST JUNE
IT'LL SOON BE TIME FOR A
SUMMER AWARDS CELEBRATION!
Right up
until the 11th hour, our experienced Judges and Researchers were making all necessary visits to qualifying Finalists as we worked our way through nominees for the awards on 26th February 2025. It was the widest ever representation of hotel types and brands in our 22 years!
22 YEARS ON
RESEARCH | INTEGRITY | EXPERTISE
NEW 2025 APPOINTMENTS
Meet the 2025 HOTYS Team ➦About
We're delighted to welcome on board
Toby Wand, MD of ScotHot & 365 Events [who also run The National Chef of the Year for Craft Guild of Chefs, largest chef competition in the UK]; and
Marc Crothall MBE, dynamic CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance. And, in a move that enervates us,
William Gorol, MD of
triSaaS, twice Queen's Award for Enterprise winner, Entrepreneur, former Chair of Social Bite, has been appointed our President. Additional Expert Advisors & Peer Judges will be listed after Mystery Visits are finished for this year's judging season: as you know, we require to be a bit undercover at times!
£2,500 RAISED FOR HIT - THANK YOU!
We've long supported the invaluable
➦HIT Scotland - and we thank guests for raising £2,500 at Awards Night in February. Additionally, we'll do whatever we can for
➦Hospitality Health Scotland - proactively recognising excellence in an employers' approach to mental health as an integral, prerequisite part of awards.
SUPPORT GROUPS
During the Covid crisis we set-up the Hotels Support Group - now rebranded
➦Scottish Hotels Support Group it's there when you need it. Gary and Denny in our team manage the helpful Facebook group set up by our dedicated hospitality friend Renata Fernandes,
➦Hotel & Hospitality Jobs in Scotland.
NEW FOR 2025: BLUE HOTEL PLAQUES
In February we revealed
Blue Hotel Plaques™ -
the unique-to-each-hotel way we'll describe and 'rate' hotels on our consumer site
➦BestHotels.scot
- elegant, flexible logos designed to capture a hotel's qualities and category - all included in Membership and can be supplied as a graphic or wall sign.
HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES
SCOTLAND'S HOTEL HONOURS™
P R E S E N T E D B Y T H E N A T I O N A L
HOTELS OF THE YEAR® | SCOTLAND
B A S E D E D I N B U R G H | J U D G E S N A T I O N W I D E
WORKING TOWARDS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ACCREDITATION
The fully-researched, people-centred awards.™
HOTYS MEMBERS LIMITED
® & ™ 2021 -2025 | Hotels of the Year logo is a UK Registered Trademark &
Scottish Hotel Honours & HH trophy logo are Trademarks | Used in Scotland under Licence from
Hospitality Research Organisation ~ Founded 2003