By Jim Abbott
Posted Jan 25, 2019 at 3:18 PM
DAYTONA BEACH — Hard Rock Hotel hit another high note this week when the new beachside landmark was honored as the best family hotel/resort in the United States and Canada in the annual Travvy Awards, presented by the travel agent industry website travelpulse.com.
The Hard Rock, which celebrated its highly anticipated grand opening in May 2018, prevailed over The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Fla., to receive the honor, among nearly 280 awards celebrated at a Wednesday ceremony in New York. The awards recognized excellence in 139 categories that include destinations, hotels and resorts, cruise lines and tour operators.
“The Travvy awards are considered to be the Oscars of hotel awards,” Androse Bell, Hard Rock general manager, told his staff in a congratulatory email on Thursday. “What an amazing award to sum up an excellent opening year!!!”
Hosted by travel industry communication and marketing company travAlliancemedia and its website travelpulse.com, the Travvy Awards are selected by the votes of thousands of travel agents worldwide. This year, more than 130,000 votes were cast, according to the company’s website.
“It’s a very prestigious award,” said Mark Bonn, tourism professor at Florida State University. “Travelpulse is an advertising company that connects the leisure travel brands — hotels, airlines, motor coaches, cruise lines — with travel agents, who then connect them to consumers.”
Several professors at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida stated that they weren’t familiar with the awards. Meanwhile, Michael Terry, a Rosen associate instructor in lodging, hotel and restaurant branding, characterized awareness of the Travvys as being on the rise.
“They are working hard to make it a big award,” Terry said. “It’s not a big award right now, but they are working to make it that way.”
Nevertheless, area tourism leaders were basking in the glow of the Hard Rock’s latest accolade. In October, the hotel was awarded the coveted Four Diamond rating from AAA, a designation bestowed on only 6 percent of properties inspected annually by AAA.
“Awards are not something new to our area, but this feat for the Hard Rock is phenomenal,” said Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County. “It just goes to show that Androse, their general manager, and the crew really, really work hard.”
The award is a major honor, said Abbas Abdulhussein, CEO of Daytona Beach-based Summit Hospitality Management Group, the developer that invested more than $40 million into the transformation of the building into the gleaming new rock ‘n’ roll-themed Hard Rock Hotel from its past-life as one of beachside’s most notorious hotels.
“You can see the level of competition,” he said. “We’re talking about The Diplomat and other renowned hotels. It’s great news for the Hard Rock and great news for Daytona Beach.”