AHEAD in London and Dubai

Following the Miami showdown back in June, when the great and good of American hospitality duked it out for one of Sleeper magazine’s coveted Awards for Hospitality, Experience and Design, the hoteliers of Europe and the Middle East & Africa are under the spotlight this November, as the next two stages in AHEAD’s two-year quest to unveil the world’s best hotels get underway in London and Dubai.

The awards ceremony at W Al Habtoor City on 15th November, the MEA edition came conveniently smack in the middle of Dubai Design Week, when all discerning designer eyes were on the city. A shortlist of 47 hotels was whittled down to 12 winners, each representing the regional best-in-class across categories from best bar, club or lounge to best safari lodge or tented camp. Big congratulations to our clients Rove Hotels in particular who won New Concept and Event Space categories. www.aheadawards.com/mea/winners

Five days later, the London leg, pitting 60 shortlisted hotels from Iceland to Italy for 12 awards takes place at the Park Plaza, bringing a bang-on-trend ‘future-retro’ theme to proceedings.

Music Concierge is shaping the distinctive sounds of both events and, although we don’t want to give too much away about the playlists before the party, let’s just say, with the London event in mind, we’ve spent much of the last month or two studying the sci-fi sonic stylings of the new Bladerunner…

And, for any Asian hoteliers out there, entries are open for the next round of AHEAD Asia in March 2018, so if your property has the design chops to stand head and shoulders above the rest, get your submission in before 30 November.