BEST Western, the York-based hotel marketing and sales consortium, has won an international award for its home-grown British room bookings.

It won the “largest domestic room night growth” title, beating off stiff competition from every other Best Western grouping in the world.

The award, handed out by Best Western’s international head office in Phoenix, Arizona, follows an increase in domestic bookings last year of 16 per cent, representing 100,500 more bookings from its more than 270 hotels in the UK This award is particularly difficult for an established affiliate office to achieve, as new countries gain growth faster as they emerge into their markets.

But even after operating for more than 33 years, the Clifton Moor-based British office has bucked the trend to win the accolade.

Keith Pope, director of Best Western GB, said: “To win this award the amount of room nights sold had to increase significantly higher than any other Best Western affiliate office in the world. It is a great achievement and is a true testament to the hard work and dedication of the teams here in Great Britain.

“We believe that the significant increase in domestic room nights shows confidence in the British economy and we are confident we can continue the increase.”