Alveston House Hotel near Thornbury has won the Small Hotel of the Year award at this year’s Bristol Hospitality Awards 2010. The independently-owned hotel faced competition from other shortlisted quality hotels including the Hotel du Vin Bristol, Winford Manor and The Rodney Hotel, but was named overall winner in the small hotel category and carried home the coveted title at last night’s awards ceremony, which took place in Bristol.

Alveston House, which is located 10 miles north of Bristol on the A38, prides itself on its 30 comfortable bedrooms, conference facilities for over 100 guests, an award winning restaurant and the highest AA rating of any 3 star hotel in the Bristol area.

Its 18-strong team has been steadily building its reputation in recent years as a hotel for business and leisure combining the best of modern facilities with a traditional personal and caring service.

Alveston House Hotel, which is described by guests as “a stunning find”, “an oasis of calm” and “a hidden gem” on hotel review website tripadvisor, is a former Georgian home which became a guesthouse in the late 60’s and which has steadily grown over the past 30 years.

The hotel is owned by Julie Camm, who originally took a holiday job at Alveston House as a stop-gap before starting teacher training in Liverpool some 34 years ago. Not wanting to leave she returned after just seven weeks to take a full time job at the hotel, later becoming General Manager. Julie purchased the hotel in a management buy-out in 1998. The hotel’s Carriages Restaurant is a tribute to Julie’s other passion in life, carriage driving. She has represented Great Britain in four world championships.
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“Winning the prestigious title of Small Hotel of the Year is a fantastic tribute to the dedication and hard work of our management team and staff.” says Julie. “Our team is passionate about ensuring our guests enjoy excellent food and an outstanding level of personal service and we all genuinely love what we do. I am so thrilled that our efforts have been recognised with this amazing award.

“We were excited to have been shortlisted for the awards so to take the Small Hotel of the Year title makes us proud beyond words. We would also like to congratulate all the other hotels and restaurants who made the shortlists as the level of competition was incredibly high. Bristol certainly has a hospitality industry to be proud of.”
 

 

Staff at the Alveston House Hotel near Thornbury are celebrating the news that their establishment has received a silver accreditation from the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) which monitors best environmental practice within the tourism sector.

The independently-owned hotel was given a silver award following its recent assessment by an environmental auditor, signifying that Alveston House has been found to have “very good” environmental practice and is recognised as a sustainable tourism operation. Assessments are undertaken every two years with businesses being graded against over 120 measures of best practice, ranging from energy conservation, water use and waste minimisation to purchasing, marketing and social responsibility.

In its report, Green Tourism commended the owners’ commitment to sustainable principles and measures such as the hotel’s green action plan, energy efficient services, promotion of public transport and sustainable purchasing of regional meat and dairy products.

Alveston House becomes the latest of only 3 hotels in Bristol to achieve a silver award for Green Tourism. Members who gain accreditation have shown commitment towards reducing the impact of their business on the environment and customers who use hotels accredited by the scheme are assured that the accommodation chosen is committed to sustainable tourism.

Owner manager Julie Camm says that her entire team is thrilled with the latest accolade, which comes hot on the heels of the hotel’s success in winning the ‘Small Hotel of the Year’ title in the 2010 Bristol Hospitality awards.
“We have long been conscious of our environmental responsibilities as a business and our team has been working very hard to ensure that we have good practices in place so we are truly delighted to have received this recognition.” Julie commented.

“However we also appreciate that there is more that we can do and we will continue to focus on sustainability across all parts of the business.”

Alveston House, which is located 10 miles north of Bristol on the A38, prides itself on being a hotel for business and leisure combining the best of modern facilities with a traditional personal and caring service. The hotel boasts 30 comfortable bedrooms, conference facilities for over 100 guests, an award winning restaurant and the highest AA rating of any 3 star hotel in the Bristol area.