Best Western Thompson was one only 44 hotels out of Best Western International’s 2,100 properties in the U.S. and Canada to receive both the M.K. Guertin Award and the Champion Customer Care Award at Best Western International’s 2014 convention in Toronto earlier this month.
The M.K. Guertin Award is presented to Best Western hotels that best exemplify the vision of the company’s founder through exceptional service, quality, value and commitment to the brand. The Champion Customer Care Award is for those hotels that demonstrate exceptional levels of service and care to guests while meeting quality and service standards and other membership requirements.
“How we achieved this is by delivering services to our guests that exceed expectations,” said Ethel Timbang, previously the manager of finance and sales* for Best Western Thompson who was named the hotel’s general manager on Sept. 25. “We are always striving for a perfect guest experience. It’s a team effort. We thank the team for this from top to bottom.”
Best Western Thompson is one of only six in Canada, along with two in B.C., tow in Ontario and one in Nova Scotia, to win both awards.
Timbang attended the Toronto convention along with Shannon Rothlander, Best Western Thompson’s manager for product and service excellence, as well as Tony Chang and Elaine Grundy, the co-owners and presidents of T.E. Holdings, which also owns the Grey Wolf Bay townhouses, Polar Laundry and the Nickel Apartments along with other businesses in Yellowknife and Prince Edward Island and the Kivalliq Inuit Centre, a boarding house in Winnipeg for people from Canada’s northern territories who are in the city for medical treatment.
The 80-room Best Western Thompson had an overall score of 98 per cent on 160 guest satisfaction surveys in the past 12 months and was in the top five per cent of Best Western International’s properties in its most recent assessment.
“We’re very proud of the culture that we have at Best Western,” said Timbang, with a philosophy of management taking care of employees so they can take care of guests.
“The M.K. Guertin Award is given to our most engaged members whose hotels are our top scorers in quality and overall service and are leaders in our brand,” said Dilipkumar Patel, chairman of Best Western International’s board of directors, in a press release. “The Best Western Thompson also received the Champion Customer Care Award because of its dedication and focus on providing memorable experiences for guests.”
* This article has been corrected from the original version, whiich gave Ethel Timbangs's previous title as the manager of finance and administration. The Thompson Citizen apologizes for the error.
