Macdonald Resorts earns golf industry accolade
Macdonald Hotels & Resorts is in the swing after winning a top accolade at the seventh annual 59club Service Excellence Awards.
The awards acknowledge and celebrate exceptional service at golf venues. This year’s awards ceremony took place at The Belfry Hotel & Resort in the West Midlands, and Graham Auld, Golf Sales Executive at Macdonald Linden Hall Golf & Country Club in Northumberland, was rewarded for his consistently high service levels, with the coveted ‘Leading Individual Golf Sales Performance’ award, following an outstanding ‘mystery shopper’ assessment.
The awards are designed to reward the top golf venues across all business elements – sales, service, operations, retail, food and beverage, and management – while 59club’s industry benchmark, the Gold, Silver and Bronze Flags, recognise the finest membership clubs and commercial venues.
Simon Wordsworth, chief executive at 59club and a Fellow of the PGA, said: “Our congratulations go out to Graham for achieving the very best golf sales performance, based on the single best group golf day enquiry call of the year.
‘Maximising opportunities’
“Any venue that has attributed increased focus for this type of enquiry, will have not only seen improved conversion from previous years, but also maximised their revenue opportunities.”
In addition to winning the ‘Leading Individual Golf Sales Performance’ award, Macdonald Hotels & Resorts was also nominated for three other awards, including ‘Golf Sales Team of the Year’, ‘Food and Beverage Manager of the Year’ and ‘Greenkeeper of the Year – Under £75 green fee’.
Victory at the 59club Service Excellence Awards caps a year of significant investment at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, which has seen £550,000 of course upgrades completed across its five UK golf venues during 2016.
Keith Pickard, group director of Golf and Health & Fitness at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts said: “We aim to offer every guest a memorable experience and Graham’s award further underlines the efforts we go to as a team. Receiving prestigious industry awards such as this, is another clear measure that we continue to deliver a standout service to golf customers.”
Alongside Macdonald Linden Hall Golf & Country Club, the award-winning group’s collection of golf resorts in the UK includes Macdonald Aviemore Resort, home of RCI affiliate Macdonald Spey Valley Golf & Country Club – which hosts the annual SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge on the European Challenge Tour, Macdonald Hill Valley Hotel, Golf & Spa, Macdonald Portal Hotel, Golf & Spa and Macdonald Cardrona Hotel, Golf & Spa.
