The Meetings Star Award has been awarded for the past twelve years by the editorial board of Kongres Magazine and Conventa to the best destinations, congress hotels and convention centres. The gala ceremony for the winners will take place on Tuesday, 22 February 2022 at 17.00 online.
Since its inception, the Meetings Star Award has become a recognised accolade by event organisers and the industry. It is considered one of the rare awards based on comprehensive criteria and standards. The evaluated hotels and destinations are assessed by hidden congress guests. They are industry professionals with rich experience in event organising and extensive knowledge in the hotel business. Furthermore, the assessors have verified references in ensuring the quality of their work in the meetings industry, thus ensuring clients get objective insight and the reliability of the methodology. Our hidden guest assessors strive for objectivity, are fair, meticulous, reliable, well-organised and pay attention to detail. The evaluation matrix comprises over 500 tangible criteria, divided into various categories.
Before the event in February, it is our honour to present the best hotels in the first category – CITY MEETING HOTELS.
A record-breaking 78 hotels from 16 countries of New Europe earned the certificate of quality within the category. The majority of evaluated hotels come from Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia and other regional countries. Altogether, 121 city hotels were evaluated, 64% of them acquiring the certificate.
City hotels are characterised by their location in the broader city centre and their design that comprises smaller conference capacities or larger congress centres. 54% of evaluated hotels boast larger congress capacities, whereas 46% feature a smaller conference centre with a maximum capacity of 250 participants. In light of congress capacities, we also compared the categorisation of evaluated hotels. Among the best, 54% were five-star hotels, while the rest were four-star.
This year’s evaluation emphasizes assessing congress capacities and the acclimatization of hotel congress centres to the corona reality. We have found out that hotels have made a noticeable improvement compared to 2020. Our findings have further shown that numerous hotels have taken time to renovate their rooms, thus improving their final marks. In any case, it is worth reviewing the marks of individual hotels that paint a realistic picture. For instance, the capacity theatre/number of rooms index points to a hotel’s congress capacities. 29% of evaluated hotels have a negative ratio, or, in other words, more hotel rooms than the capacity of the hotel’s congress centre. A detailed analysis has shown that, depending on the location, the ideal index is 150. Therefore, a hotel with 100 rooms should provide an event hall with a capacity for at least 150 attendees, with suitable space for registration, exhibitions and catering. Our analysis has shown that hotels distinctly differentiate in this segment, most probably because the design of the centres is often intuitive.
10 BEST CITY MEETING HOTELS IN 2021
WINNER: ANDAZ VIENNA AM BELVEDERE
Final Mark: 4.97
Hotel Andaz heralds an era of new city meeting hotels where the wellbeing of participants and organisers is prioritised. The hotel’s congress centre is a textbook example of what congress centres will look like in the future. Furthermore, the hotel is a winner because it has become the heart of the new city district with its offer. Having become a meeting point, guests and locals meet here to enjoy art, revel in cultural events, recreate or enjoy a coffee. Countless positive comments by satisfied hotel guests prove that investing in fantastic, sustainable architecture pays off. Guests also appreciate the hotel’s green endeavours to decarbonise the hotel. In fact, one cannot but actively participate in the hotel’s admirable aim. Renzo Piano’s signature is the icing on the cake of the entire experience.
Hotel Andaz has earned the top spot on our list of the best city meeting hotels because of its unmatched congress centre, easy accessibility, professional and kind personnel, and the inspiring holistic offer that shows the way ahead. Thus, it is our honour to pronounce it as the MEETINGS STAR in the category of TOP CITY MEETING HOTELS.
Read the full Hidden Guest evaluation here.
TOP TEN BEST CITY HOTELS IN 2021
1. Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere, Vienna – final mark: 4.97
Read more here
2. Parisi Udvar Hotel, Budapest – final mark: 4.96
Read more here
3. Ritz Carlton, Budapest – final mark: 4.95
Read more here
4. Hotel Corinthia, Budapest – final mark: 4.94
Read more here
5. Fours Seasons Hotel, Baku – final mark: 4.92
Read more here
6. Budapest Marriott Hotel, Budapest – final mark: 4.90
Read more here
7. Sheraton, Salzburg – final mark: 4.89
Read more here
7. Hilton Baku Hotel, Baku – final mark: 4.89
Read more here
7. Fairmont Baku Flame Flowers, Baku – final mark: 4.89
Read more here
7. Park Hyatt, Vienna – final mark: 4.89
Read more here
8. Hilton, Belgrade – final mark: 4.88
Read more here
9. Mama Shelter, Belgrade – final mark: 4.87
Read more here
10. Boulevard Hotel, Baku – final mark: 4.86
Read more here
We sincerely congratulate the best hotels and wish them a successful congress year of 2022.
On the day of the online gala ceremony, taking place on Tuesday, 22 February 2022, we will award the winners with prestigious accolades. Furthermore, all Meeting Star certificate recipients will be announced for 2021. In the category of city hotels, the following certificates, divided into three sub-categories on the premise of achieved points in the hidden guest evaluation, will be announced:
24 GOLD certificates – final score from 4.81 to 5.00
35 SILVER certificates – final score from 4.61 to 4.80
19 BRONZE certificates – final score from 4.41 to 4.60
All certificate recipients can be found in Kongres Magazine’s venue and hotel finder FIND VENUES at https://kongres-magazine.eu/search-venues/. You can seek hotels according to the certificate or final mark.
BRIEF ANALYSIS OF EVALUATED CITY HOTELS
In this year, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the evaluation results. Below, we present some of our most intriguing findings for the premier time:
| Number of hotel rooms | Number of hotels | Percentage | Average |
| Over 500 | 3 | 3,85% | 622 |
| 301 – 500 | 11 | 14,10% | 360 |
| 201 – 300 | 17 | 21,79% | 234 |
| 101 – 200 | 41 | 52,56% | 155 |
| Less than 100 | 6 | 7,69% | 81 |
| Hotel room prices | Number of hotels | Percentage | Average |
| Up to 100 EUR | 21 | 26,92% | 83,9 EUR |
| From 101 to 200 EUR | 49 | 62,82% | 134 EUR |
| From 201 to 300 EUR | 3 | 3,85% | 244 EUR |
| Over 300 EUR | 5 | 6,41% | 381,4 EUR |
| Number of meeting rooms | Number of hotels | Percentage | Average size |
| 1 to 5 | 17 | 21,79% | 2,9 |
| 6 to 10 | 42 | 53,85% | 7,1 |
| 11 to 20 | 14 | 17,95% | 13,3 |
| More than 20 | 5 | 6,41% | 32 |
| Total event space in sqm | Number of hotels | Percentage | Average size |
| Up to 200 sqm | 7 | 8,97% | 133,9 |
| 201 to 500 sqm | 19 | 24,36% | 333,7 |
| 501 to 1000 sqm | 22 | 28,21% | 693,6 |
| 1001 to 2000 sqm | 18 | 23,08% | 1444,5 |
| Over 2000 sqm | 12 | 15,38% | 2693,9 |
| Max. capacity theatre | Number of hotels | Percentage | Average size |
| 0 to 100 participants | 13 | 16,67% | 74,2 |
| 101 to 250 participants | 19 | 24,36% | 176,1 |
| 251 to 500 participants | 25 | 32,05% | 370,5 |
| 501 to 1000 participants | 17 | 21,79% | 750,7 |
| Over 1000 participants | 4 | 5,13% | 1575 |
