Rydges Voted Top Hotel Chain by TA’s

14 September 2016

Rydges Voted Top Hotel Chain by TA’s in National Travel Industry Awards

A national online poll amongst travel agents voting in their thousands has named Rydges Hotels & Resorts New Zealand number one in the country.

The Australasian hotel chain 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 in the weekend.

Competition was stiff from both Accor which had won two years running and Sky City. However Rydges took out the top trophy based purely on performance.

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.

“I guess it’s about being real and not taking ourselves too seriously. We always talk about our ‘back to basics’ sales approach” she says. “Our aim is to make the travel agents lives as easy as possible, and we do that by being flexible, knowing our stuff, 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 – yet it works.”

Regular face to face client contact every quarter is the key. Rydges sales representatives gather together “en masse” to present to travel management companies in a way that agents really relate too according to 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.

“They’re insightful, funny and always get a fantastic reaction. I remember when the girls came in at Easter all dressed up with bunny ears and fluffy tails” says Becky Va’a, Client Relationship Manager at BCD Travel.

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.

“We’ve come a long way to put ourselves firmly on the map in New Zealand” says the National Sales and Marketing Director. “It’s been our people who’ve accomplished that.”

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