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CapitaLand’s wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has swept a total of 24 highly coveted accolades at the 2013 Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards and World Travel Awards for Asia & Australasia as well as Europe. The awards recognise Ascott as the leading serviced residence provider across Asia Pacific and Europe. With these awards, Ascott has been recognised with 104 accolades to date in 2013, exceeding the 79 accolades it garnered in the full year of 2012.
For the 10th straight year, readers of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific magazine have voted Ascott The Residence as the ‘Best Serviced Residence Brand’ in the region. The poll, which was conducted by an independent market research company, also unveiled Ascott’s premier serviced residence in its home base of Singapore – Ascott Raffles Place – as the ‘Best Serviced Residence’ in Asia Pacific. Ascott has won in these two award categories every year since their inception in 2004. Ascott Sathorn Bangkok and Ascott Makati also came in second and third place respectively for ‘Best Serviced Residence’ in Asia Pacific.
At the World Travel Awards for Asia & Australasia where winners were voted by travel professionals and consumers, Ascott was conferred 12 awards, including the top honour of ‘Asia’s Leading Serviced Apartment Brand’. Ascott also clinched leading serviced apartment and brand awards for Ascott The Residence and Somerset Serviced Residence in China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
At the World Travel Awards for Europe, Ascott garnered eight accolades. It beat contenders from various countries to receive the highest accolade of ‘Europe's Leading Serviced Apartment Brand’. In addition, Ascott’s Citadines Apart’hotel brand and properties triumphed in seven other categories in Belgium, England, France and Germany.
Mr Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are humbled to be voted the best in Asia Pacific and Europe by travellers and travel professionals. Their continued support is fundamental to Ascott’s success. Winning Business Traveller Asia-Pacific awards for 10 years in a row, and World Travel Awards across different geographies, demonstrates the consistent high quality of our products and services. Across our properties in more than 80 cities across over 20 countries, our 5,000 staff dedicate themselves to providing excellent services and exceeding our guests’ expectations. These awards truly go to all our staff that has made it possible for Ascott to garner 104 accolades so far this year.”
Mr Julian Gregory, Managing Director of Panacea Publishing, which publishes Business Traveller Asia-Pacific, said: “For 22 years, the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards have allowed our readers to recognise those companies that deserve recognition for their products and services. Ascott has passed an amazing milestone by winning ‘Best Serviced Residence Brand’ and ‘Best Serviced Residence’ in Asia Pacific for 10 consecutive years, bearing testament to its impeccable standards in helping to make business travellers’ journeys seamless and productive. We congratulate Ascott and their staff on this great achievement.”
To enhance customer experience, Ascott has embarked on an extensive programme to refurbish 37 properties in Asia Pacific and Europe. The newly renovated properties have received positive reviews from customers. Ascott has also recently introduced new web and mobile booking features to enable easier and faster search by guests for its properties. These encompass a citywide search function that allows guests to view all available properties in a city, and filters to help guests narrow down available apartments according to their needs. Guests can also perform a multi-city, multi-property or multi-apartment booking within a single reservation process.
In addition, Ascott has begun offering free internet access to all guests who book its apartments at Best Available Rates. Free internet is available across more than 100 properties under the Ascott, Citadines and Somerset brands worldwide. Ascott is also progressively boosting bandwidth to meet the increasing data demand by guests.
