Slaley Hall enjoys double award success
Staff at the four-star Slaley Hall, in Hexham, are celebrating after the resort enjoyed two successes at the prestigious annual 59club golf customer service awards, held at The Grove, in Hertfordshire.
The QHotels resort – managed by Redefine|BDL Hotels (RBH), the UK's leading hotel management company – won a ‘bronze flag' for its high overall standard of consistent performance through 2017, while Graham Auld, a member of the venue's golf sales team, was rewarded for his competence and customer-friendly approach with the award for ‘leading individual golf sales performance'.
Jonny Mould, head of golf at Slaley Hall, said: "We are very proud of the team for claiming both of these awards as excelling in customer service right across the board is one of our prime objectives. To see such good results in all elements of our business is great news: congratulations to everybody."
59club is one of Europe's foremost service benchmarking organisations, and the awards evening recognises its top performing clients and their staff across all business elements – sales, service, operations, retail, golf course, food and beverage, and management – based on the scores received as part of the benchmarking process.
Audits include a series of mystery test calls and visits from 59club testers, who evaluate the experience afforded to both visiting golfers and prospective members, in accordance with 59club's criteria.
Slaley Hall was voted ‘best golf hotel/resort in the north of England' for the fourth successive year in the 2018 Today's Golfer Travel Awards. It is set in 1,000 acres of Northumberland moorland and forest and is a magnificent four-star hotel in an elegant Edwardian mansion, with two challenging championship courses – the Hunting and the Priestman – which have played host to no fewer than 18 European Tour and European Senior Tour events.
The 7,000-yard, par-72 Hunting, designed by Dave Thomas, has lush sweeping fairways, streams, lakes, towering trees and banks of rhododendrons – but, aesthetics aside, it will catch out the unwary. Well-placed bunkers and tricky greens make this USGA standard course a real challenge. The quality of Slaley Hall's elder layout is illustrated by the fact the course is often dubbed ‘The Augusta of the North'.
The Priestman course was designed by Neil Coles and opened in 1999. Beautifully maintained, the course has matured magnificently. It sits on the west side of the estate, with panoramic views of the Tyne Valley and some daunting water features, and wind can be a factor on a course which hosts regularly European seniors' events.
As the largest golf resort operator in the UK, RBH manages 10 championship and tournament golf courses across the UK, hosting events from the European Tour, European Seniors Tour, Ladies European Tour and the PGA.
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