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HOTELS celebrates the Hoteliers of the World

In a year that has challenged the hospitality industry like no other, HOTELS offered a reason to raise a glass – our Hoteliers of the World award celebration, now in its 40th year.

Of course, the challenges of this particular year meant that the virtual awards ceremony was streamed via video, but that didn’t dampen the appreciation for this year’s winners: Beatrice Tollman, founder and president of Red Carnation Hotel Collection, was honored as the corporate award winner. Danilo Zucchetti, managing director of Villa d’Este Hotels, was this year’s independent winner.

Both were selected by the readers of HOTELS magazine and hotelsmag.com. In the web event, the two accepted the crystal awards – Tollman, wearing a red carnation in her lapel, from her offices in London, and Zucchetti from a suite at the Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.

Beatrice Tollman and Danilo Zucchetti
Beatrice Tollman and Danilo Zucchetti

Watch the web event here

The event was sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and hosted by HOTELS Editor in Chief Jeff Weinstein from his office in Chicago.  

Zucchetti, in accepting the award, made a point to recognize the other nominees, who he said “equally deserve this award,” and to thank his family and his team – “not only the present one, but also the ones who preceded us, because I think in our business, there is a thread of time… We keep on carrying the tradition, the dedication, of our predecessors. I think this award goes not only to us, but to all the generations who preceded us.”

Zucchetti told Weinstein that his early years at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, in Milan, Berlin and Tokyo, were like school for him (he called Villa d’Este his master’s degree). In Milan, he said he learned one of his most important lessons from Four Seasons founder Isadore Sharp: In Berlin, before the hotel opened, it had been prepared meticulously for Sharp’s visit.

“He simply noticed something. It was a vase of flowers standing in front of the front office. But he said, ‘In this way, you cannot see the guests entering the hotel.’ So that simple sentence made me understand how important it is to be guest-centered. From that moment, that was actually kind of my philosophy. Always see from the guest point of view. This is my teaching, and because this is the only way … whenever I walk inside the hotel, I always see from the guest’s point of view, if I see something.”

Tollman recalled that one of her proudest and happiest moments was opening a high-rise hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, where each of the 70 suites was unique and designed by her, down to the fabrics. “And I did it all by myself,” she said.

She also trained the staff and opened the three restaurants in the hotel. “This took a lot of time,” she said, “but it was the best hotel in South Africa, and it was named as one of the 10 best hotels in the world at that time.”

Tollman offered her own advice to the next generation of hoteliers: “Enjoy what you’re doing,” she said. “You have an opportunity to build something and create something special.”

Zucchetti concurred. “I think we’re in the best industry, and it’s an industry, as somebody said, that can actually lead the way to the recovery.”

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