Saubhag B&B, Delhi amongst the top B&B’s in the World list.
New Delhi, January 2011: TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest and most popular travel site, with more than 40 million monthly visitors, today unveiled the best Indian hotels in its 2011 Traveller’ Choice Hotel Awards. This year’s awards recognise 719 properties worldwide and include 66 hotels from India, voted across 8 categories.
This is the 9th edition of the awards globallyand the second edition of the India Travellers’ Choice Hotel Awards. Unlike any other hotel honour in the world, Travellers’ Choice winners are based on the experiences of millions of travellers from India and around the world.
4 new categories have been added to the India Travellers Choice Hotel Awards this year. These are Top Heritage hotels, Top Hill station hotels, Top Relaxation & Spa hotels and Top B&B’s in addition to the already existing categories of Top Luxury, Top Bargains, Best Service and overall Top 25.
With the addition of new categories, the Indian TCH award list reflects even more accurately the accommodation related tastes and preferences of Indian travellers, 3 million of whom visit TripAdvisor every month to choose hotels for their trips as well as write reviews on hotels they stayed in.
Major trends -Winners and Losers
- Indians are taking to unique stand alone boutique properties like never before. Across categories Indian travellers are giving outstanding reviews to ‘hidden gem’ hotels such as the Camp Noel in Munnar, Brunton Boatyard in Kochi, Pousada Tauma in Calangute, Goa, The Machan & Camp Canopy, Lonavla & Purple Lotus in Bangalore. In fact there is a fifty-fifty representation in the Top 25 hotels between independent properties and large hospitality chain hotels.
- Rajasthan & Kerela are represented strongly across most categories, signifying the maturity of the hospitality industry in these popular destinations. Rajasthan has the maximum number of hotels from any state in the list followed by Kerela. Interesting to note is that Rajasthan hotels are winners across categories ranging from Bargain and B&B’s to Luxury and Top 25, catering to the high end as well as budget traveller.
- Taj & Oberoi hotels dominate the Top 25 and Luxury lists. Though Oberoi properties had a small lead over Taj last year, this year Taj has outnumbered Oberoi by 2 hotels and 3 rankings more than the latter. Hospitality heavyweight ITC was conspicuous by their absence in the awards last year, but have made an entry in the Top 25 with Royal Gardenia,Bangalore.
- Outside of Taj & Oberoi properties some of the notable repeat winners from last year are Sajhome in Delhi, Old Harbour Hotel in Kochi and Camp Noel,Munnar.
- Prominent in last year’s list and topper of the Top 25 last year ,Casa Candolim does not figure in any category this year, reflecting the freshness and dynamic nature of TripAdvisor reviews . Last year’s winners Taj Green Cove Resort,Kumarakom and Lemon Tree Hinjawadi are also missing in action this year.
TripAdvisor introduced B&B as a new category to the list this year, owing to a spurt in interest in B&B’s by Indian as well as inbound foreign tourists. This was possible mainly due to large number of reviews on TripAdvisor resulting from more and more travellers staying in these properties. The B&B top 10 list is dominated by properties in New Delhi which could be a result of the initiatives taken by the Delhi government to promote and incentivize the setting up of B&Bs during the Commonwealth games in Delhi last year.
Travellers are increasingly opting to stay at B&Bs as they offer a great blend of personalised service and economy. For foreign tourists the opportunity of staying with a local family adds to the India experience.
Another new & interesting category specific only to India is Heritage hotels. Rajasthan rules the roost when it comes to world class and unique heritage properties. 5 of the top ten winners in this category are from Rajasthan topped by Hotel Rambagh Palace.
Interestingly, Sajhome in Kochi voted the best bargain hotel also receives top honours in service, clearly debunking the myth that bargain and service perhaps do not go together. Sajhome also features high in the overall top 25 hotels list, ahead of larger and branded properties.
“The Traveller Choice Hotel Awards are perhaps the best measure of determining hotel properties across budget, luxury, service and other categories as they are based on real traveller experience. These popular awards are a guiding light for travellers’ looking to plan perfect holidays in India,” said Mr. Sharat Dhall, Managing Director, TripAdvisor India.
The India specific honors suggest the growing popularity of the TripAdvisor Indian site. Launched a little over 2 years back, the site already attracts over 3 million unique Indian visitors a month. Its popularity as one of the top 3 travel sites is owing to its large quantity of content on Indian destinations and hotels in the country coupled with the growing trend of Indians’ planning their trips based on the experiences of other travellers’.
For the top hotels in India as revealed in the 2011 Travellers’ Choice Awards, refer to the attachment with this press release.
About TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor® is the world’s largest travel site, enabling travellers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools.
TripAdvisor® Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 50 million unique monthly visitors* across 17 popular travel brands**. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 40 million unique monthly visitors***, 20 million members, and over 40 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 26 countries worldwide****, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also operates TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor’s millions of monthly visitors. The division includes Business Listings, which allows hoteliers to connect directly to millions of researching travellers, and Vacation Rentals, which helps property managers and individual home owners list their properties and showcase hotel alternatives.
TripAdvisor Media Group websites have been recognized as top travel resources in 2010 by Condé Nast Traveller, Good Housekeeping, TIME magazine and Travel + Leisure.
TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Group are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).
TripAdvisor and the TripAdvisor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.
©2010 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Media Group Sites, Worldwide, August 2010
** In addition to TripAdvisor, The TripAdvisor Media Group of websites includes:
www.airfarewatchdog.com,
www.bookingbuddy.com,
www.cruisecritic.com,
www.familyvacationcritic.com,
www.flipkey.com,
www.holidaylettings.co.uk,
www.holidaywatchdog.com,
www.independenttraveler.com,
www.onetime.com,
www.seatguru.com,
www.sniqueaway.com,
www.smartertravel.com,
www.travel-library.com,
www.travelpod.com,
www.virtualtourist.com and
www.kuxun.cn.
***Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, August 2010
**** TripAdvisor sites operate in 27 countriesworldwide:
www.tripadvisor.com,
www.tripadvisor.co.uk,
www.tripadvisor.ca,
www.tripadvisor.it,
www.tripadvisor.es,
www.tripadvisor.de,
www.tripadvisor.fr,
www.tripadvisor.jp,
www.daodao.com,
www.tripadvisor.in,
www.tripadvisor.se,
nl.tripadvisor.com,
www.tripadvisor.com.br,
www.tripadvisor.com.tr,
www.tripadvisor.dk,
www.tripadvisor.com.mx,
www.tripadvisor.ie,
www.tripadvisor.com.au,
www.tripadvisor.com.sg,
www.tripadvisor.co.kr,
no.tripadvisor.com,
pl.tripadvisor.com,
th.tripadvisor.com,
www.tripadvisor.ru,
www.tripadvisor.com.gr/,
www.tripadvisor.co.id and
www.tripadvisor.com.ar.
