To start this article, I’d like you to think about the last time you stayed at a hotel and had a good experience… Be honest—have you ever left a review on any platform? Most likely not; I almost never do, especially when everything goes smoothly.

The truth is, almost no one does that. Usually, if someone decides to rate a hotel, it’s because something went wrong—most of the time out of spite, and while they’re still seething with anger. Good experiences, on the other hand, you enjoy and then forget about, and maybe you tell a friend or family member about it once in a while, and that’s it.

This is why getting a positive review is one of the hardest things to achieve in the hotel industry, since it means not only that the guest had a great experience, but also that they decided to stop what they were doing and take a few minutes out of their day to reward the hotel in some way for doing a good job.

Now imagine your hotel standing out on the most important travel review platform for ranking in the top 10% for having the most positive guest reviews in the world. Well… That’s the recognition we’ve just earned with two of our hotels in the city of Medellín, and we couldn’t be happier or prouder.

What is the “Travelers’ Choice” award? Awards”

Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel platform, presents its Travelers’ Choice Awards every year. The awards are based on the aggregate of reviews left by travelers over the previous twelve months, and only the top 101 hotels in the world are recognized. In other words, which is how it’s best understood, only 1 out of every 10 hotels in the world receives this recognition; the other 9 are left out.

This year, two of our projects made it onto the 10% list: Firenze Lofts and Urbit Social Lofts, both located in Laureles.

It’s clear that many hotels around the world have achieved this, and that we’re not the only ones in Medellín to do so; several others in the city have also succeeded, and we’d like to extend our congratulations to them for their great work. I am not writing this article to pat ourselves on the back or anything like that. I am writing it because, beyond the fact that two of those hotels are ours, achieving that recognition under the market conditions I have been describing over the past 8 months strikes me as something truly remarkable.

This year is no ordinary year.

Lately, I have devoted several of my articles to documenting the complex situation currently facing Medellín’s hotel industry. An ever-growing oversupply, hundreds of new rooms competing for the same guests, and price pressure created by the constant opening of large hotels that is dragging the entire market down, and a low season that hit harder than usual this year, exacerbated by the country’s political turmoil and a tarnished international reputation.

In a challenging situation like the one Medellín is currently facing, the common mistake many hotels make is cutting costs in the wrong places, compromising on standards to make ends meet, and lowering rates to compete solely on price. The thing is, the hotel industry is a long-term business, designed to last for decades—both to weather tough times and to thrive in good times—and… to ensure longevity, positioning is key.

An important part of building our reputation lies in earning distinctions of any kind—awards and recognitions based on the hotel’s quality. That is why, in a year marked by many cutbacks and, as we say in Colombia, “tightening our belts,” receiving global recognition specifically for the hotel’s quality, in a year when quality is more expensive to uphold, is what makes this recognition more complex and, for us, more valuable.

How to Make It to TripAdvisor's 10% World Ranking

If I had to summarize what sets a hotel that achieves that 10% apart from one that falls short, I would boil it down to three things… Consistency, Processes, and Human Warmth.

Consistency: Simply put: delivering on your value proposition. What the guest saw in the photos and read in the description should be exactly what they find when they arrive at the hotel, and the experience should be just as good on the first night as it is on the last. Reputation is the result of maintaining the same standard every day, without exception, and when that’s not possible, using the following two strategies.

Processes: Consistency is achieved through processes, not just good intentions. Each process is designed with a specific goal in mind: to ensure a smooth check-in, that the room is always spotless, that customer service responds quickly, and that the guest enjoys the city without the hotel creating a single obstacle along the way. When a problem arises, the process is designed to resolve it promptly and provide the guest with a solution… And when the process fails—because nothing is perfect—that’s where the final step comes in.

Human Warmth: This is something no process can replicate. Human warmth begins long before the guest arrives; it starts with the people we hire. A great team—both within the hotel and in the support provided from our offices—is what turns an ordinary stay into one that is remembered and, sometimes, talked about. It’s no coincidence that in our reviews, guests mention staff members by name.

The award goes to the hotels, but the recognition is for our team.

Recognition like this is often associated with a brand or a name, but the truth is much simpler. Recognition of this kind belongs to the maintenance team, the reception staff, the service leaders, the revenue team, the sales team, the infrastructure team, the human resources team, and management. Every step that contributed to reaching that global 10% ranking is a testament to the work that all these people do with enthusiasm, responsibility, and coordination, day after day. And they did it in the year when it was the hardest to achieve.

We’ve been working under pressure for quite some time now, and we’ve learned a thing or two along the way: time eventually rewards those who persevere with determination and a constant smile. Two of our hotels have just made it onto the world’s 10% list, at the most difficult time to achieve it… And I’m not wrong in saying that all the others missed the cut by a hair… And that, more than the distinction itself, is the part I value most.

I would like to take this opportunity once again to congratulate all the hotels in Medellín and Colombia that have also earned this distinction; we know it hasn’t been easy.

Alejandro Gonzalez

Co-founder of Blackroom