The hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry’s finest gathered at a glittering Gala Awards Dinner in London to celebrate the presentation of the 2006 Business Excellence Awards last week.

English Lakes Hotels in the Lake District led the BHA member successes as winner in the Excellence Through People category.

English Lakes Hotels, a long standing member of the BHA, won for achieving increased levels of staff and customer satisfaction through its Plus One customer service strategy, introducing new recruitment and retention procedures and reducing labour turnover to 9.1 per cent and boosting sales revenues.

The Business Excellence Awards ceremony was held at the London Hilton Park Lane.

Overall winner in Hotels category was The Balmoral, in Edinburgh. Part of the Rocco Forte Hotels group, The Balmoral was rewarded for its cutting-edge training and development policy that saw staff retention targets exceeded, 30 internal promotions effected, ambitious sales and profit targets achieved and challenging customer satisfaction targets met.

Winner in the Hotel Group category was Ramada Jarvis Hotels. Highly commended BHA members in the awards included the Cottage in the Wood, Great Malvern; The Dorchester, London; Malmaison Hotels; and the Maybourne Hotels Group.

Restaurant Association member Pastarazzi Ristorante, in Chester was named winner in the Restaurant category for introducing the Knowat customer satisfaction management system in order to improve the quality of food and service.

Fellow RA member The Dining Room, in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, was shortlisted.

The Best Practice Forum's Business Excellence Awards are among the most prestigious and highly coveted in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry.

They are awarded to UK businesses that have demonstrated their willingness to adopt or adapt best practice in all aspects of their operation - so raising their efficiency and their profitability. They also show how innovative business practice can achieve outstanding success.

Bob Cotton, Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association, the Best Practice Forum’s lead member association, said, “The awards are both the benchmark for and the recognition of business excellence in the industry. They reward those businesses in the industry which have done most to sharpen their competitiveness and to increase productivity by improving their performance.”

To view all award winners in each of the eight sectors or to find out how to enter for the 2007 awards, please visit www.businessexcellenceawards.com