AA Hospitality Awards to host first physical ceremony since 2019 in September 2022

Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Deputy Editor

the AA Hospitality Awards 2022 will host a live ceremony for the first time in three years on Monday 26th September

The first in-person awards revelation hosted by the company since 2019 will take place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London. The show will also feature a menu created by The Social Company founder and award-winning chef, Jason Atherton.

The AA Hospitality Awards' 15 categories recognise what the company considers to be the best hotels, restaurants, and spas across the UK, celebrating important individuals with awards such as the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Chefs’ Chef Award and more.

The AA Accessible Award

This year, the company is piloting the AA Accessible Award, sponsored by Blue Badge Access Awards, which is a global initiative celebrating inclusive design across the world, and the only awards scheme that focuses exclusively on accessibility.

The co-founder of Blue Badge Access, Robin Shepperd, won the AA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

Celebrating the collaboration, he said: “We are so excited to be part of this year’s AA Hospitality Awards, especially as this will be the first ‘in-person’ ceremony in two years."

"We believe the AA Awards align with our fundamental and core beliefs and are proud to announce that this year we will be sponsoring the AA Accessible Award. We believe the AA Awards will encourage hospitality industry bosses to better recognise accessibility in hospitality, and cannot wait to see the high-calibre of submissions put forward for this year’s AA Accessible Award.”

Jason Atherton, who won the Chefs’ Chef Award in 2019, will be catering for the 1,000 attendees, including many key industry figures.

He said: “As per tradition, the previous winner of the AA Chefs’ Chef Award is always asked to cook; the pandemic delayed this for two years but it is now time to return to how things were and I can’t wait. I am so excited to finally be able to get together with everyone and share some of my favourite dishes as part of such a special occasion.”

The awards are currently accepting nominations from AA-rated establishments for the Accessible award, the Sustainable award - recognising a clear commitment to sustainable practices, and the Housekeeper of the year award - celebrating an outstanding commitment and performance from a Housekeeper.

'A key date for the industry'

Nominations for these awards can be submitted here.

Simon Numphud, Managing Director at AA Media, said: “We are beyond thrilled to be able to celebrate the greatest hospitality establishments in the UK and Northern Ireland in person this September, after two years of hiatus.

"We are delighted that Jason is creating the menu as the food will be tremendous, and we are excited to be introducing the AA Accessible Award. The AA Hospitality Awards are a key date for the industry, and we are proud to reward and recognise the hard work and passion of so many teams behind these incredible businesses.”

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