Promoting your award: a guide for hoteliers
A recognition nobody sees does nothing for you. Here is what actually works — six plays, in the order we would do them, none of which take more than an afternoon.
Get your badge firstPut it where people decide
A badge in the footer is decoration. A badge next to the room that has the tub is evidence, at the moment someone is choosing between you and the hotel down the road.
- On the room type that actually has the tub — beside the rate, not below the fold.
- On your homepage, near whatever you already say about the spa or the suites.
- On your press or awards page, if you keep one.
Say what it means, not just that you won
“Award-winning” is wallpaper; every hotel says it. What a reader actually wants to know is what was checked. Most listings that advertise a jacuzzi mean a shared spa downstairs — being the exception is the story.
- One sentence next to the badge beats a paragraph: “Our in-room tubs are verified by HotelHotTubs — they checked the photographs.”
- Name the room. “The Hawthorne Suite tub is the one they verified” is specific in a way “award-winning hotel” never is.
- Link the badge through. A badge that goes nowhere reads as a graphic someone bought.
Use it where guests are already reading
The booking confirmation is the highest open-rate email your property sends, and pre-arrival mail reaches someone who has already committed and is now looking forward to the stay.
- Add a line to the pre-arrival email for guests booked into a tub room.
- Put it in your email signature during the award year.
- Mention it in the response to a review that praises the tub — the most natural possible context.
Update the listings you don't own
Your OTA descriptions are where most travellers meet you first, and they are usually years out of date. This is worth doing whether or not you ever display the badge.
- Make sure the tub is in the room description, not only in the amenity list.
- Check the room photos actually show the tub. Ours is a photo-based check and plenty of hotels fail it only because the picture isn't there.
- Use the same room names everywhere. Inconsistent naming is why a tub room often looks like two different rooms.
Tell your own team
Front desk and reservations are asked “is there a hot tub in the room?” constantly, and an unsure answer costs a booking that was already half-made.
- Tell reservations which rooms carry the distinction and what was verified.
- Put it in the pre-shift note for a week. It is a small, real thing to be proud of.
Say it once, publicly
A single post is enough. Local press and tourism boards pick up hotel recognitions more often than hoteliers expect, especially in smaller markets.
- One post with a photograph of the actual tub, not the badge on its own.
- Send two lines to your CVB or tourism board — they publish member news and rarely have enough of it.
- If you have a local paper that covers business, they will take it.
What we ask in return
Nothing is owed for the badge and hotels cannot pay to be selected. Two requests, both small:
- Keep the link. The badge points at the page where your hotel is listed — it is what lets a reader check the claim rather than take your word for it.
- Don’t alter the artwork. No recolouring, no cropping, and please don’t place it beside a claim it doesn’t support.
Something on your listing wrong? Send us a correction. Curious how the 2026 winners were chosen? Read the selection notes.