A SMALL Thornbury hotel has made a big name for itself after winning a prestigious tourism award.

Thornbury Castle beat off stiff competition to win the Small Hotel of the Year Award at Destination Bristol’s annual Tourism and Hospitality Awards last Monday, February 17.

The annual awards ceremony celebrates the best of Bristol’s tourism industry with 17 award categories.

It brings together tourism businesses and individuals from the area and recognizes their achievements over the last twelve months.

Group sales manager for Thornbury Castle Laura Dudley said the win was a huge compliment to all of the staff who consistently provide outstanding service to each and every guest.

“We are thrilled that our hard work, efforts and commitment to improving Thornbury Castle have paid off. Staff were thrilled to have been recognized and the team couldn’t wait to announce to the other members that we’d won.”

Mrs Dudley said it had been a tough contest as the Bristol area has a wealth of great small hotels. After winning the same award in 2013 Tornbury Castel were ready to retain the title.

“We submitted a strong entry and presented to the judges with our many key attributes that makes us the Small Hotel of the Year. We had won the award previously so we knew we were capable, worthy and ready to win again.

“Our hotel stands out as a very unique offering as we are steeped in history and our beautiful setting is simply stunning. Our passionate team of staff have worked so hard over the past year improving what they do and have strived for perfection so this, together with the fact that we’ve re-invested into the fabric of the property, meant that are worthy of the award.”

There were around 150 nominations in total this year and the winners now go forward to represent Bristol in the VisitEngland Awards, taking place in May 2014.

Mrs Dudley said: “We are keeping everything crossed as we are not sure of the other hotels we will be competing against in our category. We know we have a great hotel and the exposure we will receive as a result will be incredible for us. We are just thrilled to have got as far as we have. We’d love to win and it would be absolutely great for team morale to have further reward and recognition for their contributions.”