Choice’s Hotels and Women of the Year

LAS VEGAS-There's no shortage of awards at a Choice Hotels Convention, but this year some of the names and properties were repeated, as Choice Hotels Canada (CHC) handed out its Hotel of the Year Awards, and then two of the recipients raced to another meeting to find out if they had won the Women's Business Alliance (WBA) Woman of the Year Award.

The Hotel of the Year was the Comfort Inn, Sturgeon Falls, ON.  Tina Halvorsen is GM of the 60-room property, built in 2005.  The Sturgeon Falls property was described as bilingual, pet friendly and 100 per cent non-smoking.

Hotel of the Year, Comfort Inn, Sturgeon Falls, ON

The Quality Suites in Drummondville, QC was a finalist.  This medium-sized property won the Canadian Hotel of the Year Award in 2006.  GM and owner Genevieve Milot was one of two Canadians who were finalists for the international WBA Woman of the Year Award.

Bernice Thériault, GM of the Comfort Inn Bridgewater, NS also had the honour of being a Hotel of the Year finalist and a Woman of the Year finalist.  Thériault is a 17-year member of the Choice family, and her hotel  is on the Lighthouse Route on Nova Scotia's south shore.

While two out of three finalists for the Woman of the Year award were Canadian, the award went to an American, Nancy Schade, general manager, Quality Inn & Suites, Sequim, WA, just across the Juan de Fuca Straight from Victoria, BC.

Shelly Dean, GM of the Quality Inn & Suites, Bayer's Lake, Halifax, NS and Quality Inn Halifax Airport, Goffs, NS, won the CHC Choice Privileges Award.  Dean delivered 2,941 Choice Privilege loyalty program members from her hotels in one year-eight per cent of the total Canadian Choice Privilege Club members generated by all of Choice's Canadian properties.