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Darlington's Walworth Castle Wins Global Award

Walworth Castle, based near Darlington, has been awarded the Best Western International Quality Assurance Award, placing it in the top 20% of all Best Western hotels globally outside North America.

With over 250 independently owned hotels across the UK and 4500 globally, Best Western hotel awards are only given to a select number of hotels throughout the world that reach an exemplary level of quality and service.

Employing 45 staff, the 32-bed privately owned hotel, which won Best Western UK Small Hotel 2018, also boasts a holiday cottage, a newly refurbished gatehouse lodge and has just recently celebrated the opening of the new 1189 Bar and Kitchen.

The IQA award is given by Best Western International to hotels that consistently meet high quality standards. The IQA’s are a global quality award for Best Western, and the accolade for Walworth Castle means that it is in the top 20% of Best Western properties globally.The Best Western International team evaluates all member hotels to ensure they meet the standards required to be part of the Best Western brand. Only those hotels that achieve the highest scores are given the award, showcasing the properties on a global scale. The award comes as Walworth Castle’s owners, Chris and Rachel Swain, approach their 20th anniversary at the hotel and their 13th year of membership with Best Western Great Britain.

Chris Swain, joint owner of Walworth Castle with his wife, Rachel Swain, says “ It is a great honour to win such a prestigious, international award. There are so many wonderful hotels who are members of Best Western, who are setting the bar high with their exceptional standards of customer care and guest experience, so to be awarded an Internationally Quality Assurance award is something we are immensely proud of. We have our dedicated and hard working team to thank for their tireless commitment.“

Every Best Western hotel is assessed on guest and bathroom cleanliness, the standards of the public areas including restaurants and leisure facilities, as well as guest feedback. All the hotels must achieve minimum standards to remain part of the group. However some hotels go on to achieve global recognition with an ‘International Quality & Service Award’ for their excellence in this area.

Chris and Rachel Swain have owned Walworth Castle for 19 years and have invested £8million during this time

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Catherine Harland .