Destination Hotels & Resorts Properties Win Seven Awards in the 2009 Web Marketing Association WebAwards

Englewood, Colo. – October 15, 2009 – Destination Hotels & Resorts, in conjunction with its e-marketing partner E-site Marketing, recently took home seven Web Marketing Association WebAwards for outstanding work in Web site development and e-campaigns. Destination Hotels & Resorts is a hospitality management company that offers a collection of hotels, resorts, conference centers and vacation rentals in key locations throughout the United States.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for the hard work we’ve put into our integrated strategy across the portfolio,” said Isaac Gerstenzang, corporate director of e-commerce for Destination Hotels & Resorts. “A few years ago we evolved our strategy to provide a consistent architecture while allowing each property the opportunity to showcase its individuality. This, coupled with our search engine strategy, has created a lot of traction for the collection and translated into increased bookings.”

The following Destination Hotels & Resorts properties were recognized with the Hotel and Lodging Standard of Excellence award:
•    Sunriver Resort
•    Inn and Spa at Loretto
•    Royal Palms Resort & Spa: Save the Date Campaign
•    The Inverness Hotel & Conference Center
•    The Carolina Inn
•    Miramonte Resort & Spa
•    Terranea Resort

In the 2009 WebAwards there were 96 industry categories. Each Web site went head-to-head with other Web sites in their category and the highest score was selected Best of Industry winner in that category. Of the remaining entries, if they received a score of 60 or greater out of a possible 70 points granted by the judges, the entry received the Outstanding Web site award. Entries that scored between 50 and 59.9 received the Standard of Excellence.

The Web Marketing Association is the producer of the WebAward Competition.  Now in its 13th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual Web site award competition that names the best Web sites while setting the standard of excellence for all Web site development. Few Web site award programs recognize the individual achievement behind the creation of today's top Web sites the way the Web Marketing Association does. The organization believes it is important to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective and best Web sites on the Internet today.

In addition to recently being recognized for excellence in Web development, Destination Hotels & Resorts recently re-launched its corporate vacation and travel Web site – www.destinationhotels.com - to engage with travelers through social media and Web 2.0 technologies. The new Web site offers a new design that visually leads users through the discovery of the rich destination experiences provided by the portfolio, from Florida’s beaches and the Arizona desert to the ski resorts of Colorado.  New navigation and a dynamic blog on every page, along with collection micro-sites that highlight destination vacation experiences, provide users with more robust and visual content to make travel decisions. The Web site of this property management company also incorporates a variety of content and media syndication technologies that make it easy to share content on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Technorati as well as between Web sites in the portfolio.

E-marketing partner E-site Marketing created Destination Hotels & Resorts’ new corporate Web site and is responsible for implementation of all property Web strategies. E-site Marketing, a Sabre Holdings company, is located in Bethesda, MD, and specializes in creating e-business solutions exclusively for the hospitality industry. The company's unique approach to building successful online marketing programs combines hospitality expertise, innovative Internet marketing techniques and an emphasis on return on investment. For more information on E-site Marketing and its products and services, call - 301-634-8103; email info@esitemarketing.com; or visit the web site at http://www.esitemarketing.com/.

Destination Hotels & Resorts is consistently rated one of the top 10 independent hospitality management companies in the United States, with more than 30 luxury and upscale hotels, resorts and conference centers. To protect and preserve the unique communities in which the company operates its vacation destinations, Destination Hotels & Resorts launched Destination Earth, an environmental sustainability program, in 2008. New for 2009 is the 582-room Terranea Resort situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southern California, which opened to the public in June. The 102-acre ocean front resort features a 25,000-square-foot destination spa, three swimming pools, three ocean view restaurants and a Todd Eckenrode-designed par three golf course. In addition to Terranea Resort in the greater Los Angeles area, Destination Hotels & Resorts operates properties in key metropolitan areas and vacation resort markets including Washington, D.C., Denver, San Diego, Santa Fe, Aspen, Palm Springs, Houston and Lake Tahoe. Destination Hotels & Resorts is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based investment, development and management firm Lowe Enterprises.  For more information on the properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection, please visit www.destinationhotels.com or to join the company’s loyalty program for the best offers and travel deals available, visit www.destinationdelivers.com

###

Back to Listing