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This page has a random selection of photographs of the 2008 Awards Night Party and we're adding more, and the captions, as images come in. Page will take a while to fully load! If you have any good shots - do send them in! We warmy thank photographers Ken Scott (pics with ref 'Ken') and Walter Neilson.

The winning team from Inverlochy Castle, named Scottish National Hotel of the Year 2008

The Scottish Hotels Of The Year 2008

A capacity audience saw the 2008 awards presented at the ceremony hosted by the BBC's Sally Magnusson

Scotland’s very own national hotel awards were presented at the glittering 5th annual Awards Night Party on Sunday February 24th at the 5-star Prestonfield in Edinburgh. This magnificent event was attended by more than 450 of Scotland’s top hoteliers and the Scottish Government was represented by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, Rt Hon John Swinney MSP, who presented the night’s most prestigious honours.

The Scottish Hotels of the Year Awards uniquely single out excellence over a wide array of specific achievements in many categories. These in-depth awards are designed to be as precise and useful as possible for both the public and the industry. Rather than simply being a few ‘top’ awards, these distinctions are “passionately comprehensive and look deeply into all key aspects of the hospitality business”, to quote Gary McLean, chairman of the judges.

The “Scottish hotel Oscars”, to quote The Herald, are the culmination of nominations, expert judging visits, voting and a year’s feedback by consumers, plus voting by the Awards Panel and Judges. Much lengthy input is contributed on a voluntary basis. This year a remarkable 24,069 votes were cast by HotelReviewScotland.com’s readers, each one checked before being accepted. The 2008 process started in October 2007 with a call for nominations. Nominations can be received at any time during the voting process.

HotelReviewScotland.com as organisers and hosts warmly thank all sponsors, both previous and current for 2008, and Awards Panel members for their invaluable input. We would also like to express our thanks to Prestonfield’s management and staff whose expertise were essential to the smooth running of such a big event. We appreciated the generosity of owner James Thomson. We look forward greatly to the 2009 awards to be held in Glasgow on March 1 st as the opening event of ScotHot 2009.