HILTON Brighton Metropole general manager Sascha Koehler has won a top award.

He was named General Manager of the Year 2016 at the UK and Ireland Awards ceremony held at Hilton London Metropole.

The hotel had a very successful year and was shortlisted for several awards.

These included Commercial Team of the Year and Finance Team of the Year.

Katja Harjanne from business development and Richard Hopton, director of operations, were shortlisted for leader

of the year.

Daniel Smalley, also from business development, was nominated for team member of the year.

Nominees were greeted with a champagne reception before dining on a bespoke three course dinner.

Over the course of the evening the event recognised and rewarded the excellent services provided by Hilton establishments across the UK and Ireland.

General Manager of the Year and Hotel of the Year were the two top awards.

Mr Koehler was honoured for his successful leadership, implementation of new strategies and ability to innovate, team management and financial improvement of the performance of the hotel.

He said: “I am so excited about winning this award as it recognises the hard work the team and I have

put in over the course of the year.

“I am now eager to work even harder in 2017 and bring back the Hotel of the Year award to the Hilton Brighton Metropole.”

This comes in addition to the four awards won at the 2016 Brighton and Hove Hotel Association Awards last November.

Mr Koehler was also named hotelier of the year at the Celebration of Sussex Life Awards 2016.

He said: “We have had a really successful year and the whole team is over the moon at what we have achieved.

“All of our key performance indicators – including revenue, profit and customer satisfaction – show a brilliant 2016.

“Brighton is such a fantastic place to be and we work really hard but at the same time we don’t always take ourselves too seriously.

“It really is important to have a laugh at times and to have confidence in our product.

“We have created a great culture here. I am a great believer that if you enjoy coming to work then you can achieve what you set out to do.

“Being in the right frame of mind is so important.”

He said: “Brighton is a very popular place and the i360 has been a great sales tool too.”