Hayfield Has the Midas Touch

Five Star Cork Hotel Wins Hospitality Industry’s Highest Accolade

HAYFIELD MANOR HOTEL, the luxurious five star hotel in Cork city, has been awarded the highest accolade in the Irish hospitality industry, the prestigious Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Award for Excellence 2011.

The landmark Cork hotel, which celebrated 15 years in business this year, triumphed ahead of hundreds of its peers in the Irish hospitality industry, beating off stiff competition from hotels, restaurants and caterers across the island of Ireland to win the supreme award at the 23rd Annual Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards on Monday night.

Owned and operated by the Scally family, who bought the former Musgrave estate from the famous merchant clan in 1996 and turned it into the city’s first five star hotel, Hayfield Manor is a standard-bearer for Irish hospitality, providing Irish and international guests with unrivalled customer care in sumptuous surroundings.

The five star hotel has been described as a ‘beacon for Irish tourism’ by members of the Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards Jury, who together travelled close to 20,000 kilometres across the island this summer to search for Ireland’s greatest hospitality provider.

‘Hayfield Manor is a most deserving winner of the supreme Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Award for Excellence 2011, which is the highest accolade we can bestow on any hotel or catering business,’ commented Sarah Grennan, editor of Hotel & Catering Review and chair of the Gold Medal Awards Jury. ‘This luxurious five star hotel has proved consistently excellent in all aspects of its operation over our many years adjudicating for the Gold Medal Awards. Our judges have been bowled over by the standard of service delivered by the hotel’s loyal team of staff who are proud ambassadors for Irish tourism.’

Organised by Hotel & Catering Review, the leading magazine for the Irish hospitality industry, the Gold Medal Awards are recognised as the industry’s most rigorous and competitive independent awards programme. Now in their 23rd year, the Gold Medal Awards are judged by a panel of experienced independent industry practitioners who travelled thousands of kilometres across the island of Ireland over a period of four months this year to search for the best hotels, restaurants and catering operations in the land.

As well as the supreme award, a total of 15 category awards were presented at this year’s gala black tie ceremony at Dublin’s Burlington Hotel on 24 October, which was attended by over 480 leading hoteliers, restaurateurs and caterers from across the country. (See Editor’s Note for full list of award winners.) Hayfield Manor put itself in contention for the top award when it triumphed in the hotly-contested Five Star Hotels category, sponsored by Edward Dillon & Co, earlier in the evening.

By scooping the supreme award, Hayfeld Manor now joins an elite list of legendary Irish hospitality businesses to achieve top honours at the Annual Gold Medal Awards. Previous title-holders include The Merrion Hotel in Dublin (the only business to win the Gold Medal Award for Excellence twice); Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud; and last year’s top winner, Gregan’s Castle Hotel in Co Clare.