The Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal competed against a total of 503 top European properties and was eventually short listed along with four other finalists, namely, the Hotel Beau Rivage in Lausanne, the Hotel De Crillon in Paris, the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens and the Plaza Athenee in Paris.

The award was presented to the IHI chairman and chief executive Alfred Pisani, in the presence of several other dignitaries, during a ceremony held at the Hotel Bristol in Paris on Monday night.

The annual awards were conferred by a jury made up of directors from some of the most famous hotels in Europe as well as of key media representatives. Malta’s Ambassador to France, Professor Salvino Busuttil and the Hotel’s general manager, Ms Cornelia Kausch attended the presentation.

The Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal is a complete renovation of the 19th century Hotel Royal building, which first opened for Budapest’s Millennium Celebra-

tion in 1896.

The hotel has 414 luxurious rooms and the largest state-of-the-art conference and exhibition centre in any five-star hotel in Hungary as well as a spa under construction.

The Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal is owned by International Hotel Investments Plc. and managed by Corinthia Hotels International.