Local Hilton brand hotel honored for overall excellence. By Tony Britt, Lake City Reporter

In only its second year of operation, Lake City’s Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel has captured a major industry award in hotel management.

Lake City Home2 Suites owner, Nick Patel, said the hotel has been selected as a Connie Pride Merit Award winner. Patel said during an award ceremony a few weeks ago in Louisiana, awards were given to other hotel and Lake City Home2 Suites hadn’t been called as a winner yet. “My managers were thinking, ‘Did they forget about us?” “Finally, the major award came in, that was the Connie Pride Merit Award. That’s the award that’s given to the property that’s performing well, adhering to the standards and the guest satisfaction is extremely high. Basically, it’s the award that symbolizes the hotel is performing on all matrices and the Lake City Home2 Suites was called up for the award. “My General Manager and Director of Sales were on the stage with Corporate leaders of Hilton, receiving this award.”

The Lake City Home2 Suites by Hilton opened in January 2016 and The Connie Pride Merit Award is the first major award the hotel has won. There are approximately 205 Home2 Suites by Hilton hotels in the world. The Lake City Home2 Suites by Hilton was the 86^th opened in the country.

I got a call from my Director of Sales and she said, “Nick, we feel like we won a Grammy Award,” he said. “I feel proud. Lake City is a small town, and, getting these awards at a conference where everyone across the country and internationally are present, it definitely speaks well of Lake City. We’re proud and my employees deserved this. It’s definitely a distinguished award to have and I’m very pleased. My employees fully deserve this for all the hard work they’ve put in since we opened this hotel.”

Klaudia Lapham, General Manager of Lake City’s Home2 Suites, said, “The Connie Pride Merit Award is one of Hilton brand’s most prestigious awards,” noting it was for the Top-5 hotels in the company.  “Of course, you can’t do this without a good team and I’m very proud of my team,” she said. “Without our owners, we would not be here.” “Thank you to our ownership who provide us with the tools to succeed,” said Kristi Jenkinson, Director of Sales.

“The staff is definitely very proud about winning the award,” Patel said. “They are very happy. This is an energy booster for them. They came back, and they are pumped up to have another great year this year and do well. These types of awards fuel energy and employees feel like it’s their hotel. I’m proud of everyone of them that works there.”