21C Museum Hotels sweep two separate surveys

It was a big day for 21c Museum Hotels yesterday, as the tiny hotel company was named the #1 hotel in the United States in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, and its Bentonville, Arkansas, property was named hottest new hotel in the United States by TripAdvisor.

All three 21c properties topped their regional categories in the Reader’s Choice Awards, with the 21c Cincinnati listed as #1 Hotel in the Midwest, and 21c Louisville and 21c Bentonville coming in #1 and #2, respectively, as the Top Hotels in the South.

Ranking are based on the quality of rooms, service, food and dining, location and overall design.

21c Museum Hotel was founded in 2006 in Louisville by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, arts patrons and preservationists, with the vision of bringing art into people’s daily lives and supporting the revitalization of their hometown.  

The flagship property combines a 90-room boutique hotel, a contemporary art museum and an award-winning restaurant with 9,000 square feet of art-filled meeting and event space.

Two more properties have opened, in Cincinnati in November 2012, and Bentonville in February 2013; and two more are in the works, in Lexington, Kentucky, and Durham, North Carolina. 

Wilson said that "receiving such high honors shows us that guests are looking beyond the typical hotel experience, and that our mission to enhance the travel experience through contemporary art and cultural experiences resonates with travelers near and far."

Chief Curator and Director of Art Programming Alice Gray Stites organizes rotating exhibitions of the work of local as well as nationally and internationally acclaimed artists, "from the elevators and hallways to the public restrooms, restaurants and bars."  

Meanwhile, La Residence in South Africa and Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in Maturi Bay, New Zealand, tied for the World’s Best Hotel in the Reader’s Choice Awards, and Maui was named the top U.S. island for the 20th year in a row.

For the complete list of winners, go to http://www.cntraveler.com/RCA.

The nine other hotels on the Trip Advisor list in the United States are the Refinery Hotel, New York; Zero George Street, Charleston; Capella Washington DC; El Encanto by Orient-Express, Santa Barbara; The Alexander, Indianapolis; Hotel Vermont, Burlington; The James Royal Palm, Miami Beach; Weekapaug Inn, Westerly, Rhode Island; and The Jade Hotel, New York.

For the global listings, go to http://www.tripadvisor.com.

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