ASAP celebrated its first annual awards ceremony since COVID at an all-new ceremony at LABS House in Bloomsbury on June 22. After networking over branded cocktails and tables laden with grazing boards – sponsored respectively by Situ and Optii – attendees were welcomed by ASAP CEO James Foice who introduced ASAP Chair Steve Lowy (The Residence) and Leo Colgan from Headline Sponsor IMS – Integrated Media Solutions.

Hazel Browne from the evening’s chosen charity Hestia gave a moving speech about their work with survivors of domestic abuse and modern slavery, bringing more than one of the audience to real tears. The raffle held during the evening raised almost £1,100 with great prizes to be drawn over the days following.

The presentations moved along smartly, with the shortlist for each award announced by the individual category sponsor, who then revealed the winner.

Sleepeezee‘s Steve Truswell announced Chris Dossett from Staycity as General Manager of the Year, while Jo Webb from Lamington Group named Emma Horton, Synergy Global Housing, winner of Best Account Management.

Shaan Ahmed from Roomzzz presented Best Sales Initiative to Michelle Wray of Staycity, while winner of Best Community or Sustainability Initiative went to Situ for the campaign ‘Be More Starfish’, presented by John Harrington from Viridian Apartments.

Kabiru Onikoyi from sponsor 3Sixty announced Roxanne Mongie of Lamington Group as Industry Newcomer of the Year while Stephen Gill of Booking.com presented the trophy for Operations Team/Guest Services Team to Staycity.

Situ was named Best place to Work by Charlotte Winter from Synergy Global Housing, while Champion of the Year went to Vicky Snook of Premier Suites Bristol, presented by RMS Cloud.

The penultimate award, for Housekeeper/Housekeeping Team of the Year was awarded jointly to all three shortlisted – Lavinia Ungureanu of STAY Camden and the housekeeping teams from Viridian Apartments and Staycity Aparthotels Dublin Tivoli – and was presented by Danielle Prior of Alto Vita.

The final category has since been described as ‘a bit of a boomerang award’. It was sponsored once again by Viridian Apartments, so Dominic Sherry, CEO, joined Steve Lowy on stage to present the Chair’s Champion to someone described as doing ‘something truly outstanding for the industry’.

James Foice was called to the stage to receive the award – but gave it straight back. In a pre-arranged twist that somehow remained secret until the ceremony, the ASAP team, the Advisory Board and the ASAP Events Team had unanimously decided the real winner should be Steve Lowy himself. Under his Chairmanship, everyone felt ASAP has collectively achieved more for the industry, for Members and for the whole ASAP Community; Steve was the obvious recipient as ASAP Hero.

The new sustainable, wooden trophies were much admired; and after an uplifting DJ set everyone went home full of optimism and excitement for whatever comes next.