Staff at the Best Western The Westerly Hotel have a reason to celebrate.
Last month, the Courtenay hotel was recognized with the Best Western Hotels & Resorts Director’s Award for outstanding quality standards.
The award recognizes the company’s hotels scoring in the top 20 per cent of more than 2,100 North American properties in quality assurance scores. They must also meet the company’s requirements for design and high customer service scores to qualify for the award.
“It’s pretty great,” explained Rick Browning, manager partner/general manager of the hotel. “We’re not in downtown Paris or New York, we’re in the Comox Valley.”
Browning explained the hotel is rated on a variety of factors such as service, amenities and staff relative to other hotels in their group.
“For the staff, it’s phenomenal. We have a core group of staff, and then we have seasonal employees and we all assimilate together to turn out a really good product. All of our staff whether they’re full time or part-time are all required to follow the Best Western service standards – we have 63 people over seven days a week who are buying in.”
Browning added the award will serve as a way to build the team and bring awareness for their high standards.
Currently, the hotel has 66 rooms, but Browning said they are looking at expanding in the future. The hotel is going through the expansion process with the company which would increase its capacity to 90 rooms overall.
Additionally, the hotel is getting ready to open the Westerly Wellness Centre. The centre is set to offer services for the hotel, Riverside Senior Living as well as the public. It will host a variety of activities including a movement studio, three consultation rooms for practitioners such as a physiotherapist and naturopath, a hair and nail salon and a yoga/multipurpose studio.
Browning explained it will soon be possible to book a yoga class alongside a hotel reservation through the company’s app.
“Next week our seniors will be able to start using (the space), and we’ll soon be able to broaden our offerings.”
For more information on the centre, visit wellness.riversideseniorliving.ca or www.thewesterlyhotel.com.
erin.haluschak@comoxvalleyrecord.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
