The crowning achievement was attained this month with the hotel becoming the first establishment in Ireland to achieve the prestigious Optimus Award for Excellence.

The four star Maryborough House Hotel and Spa is located four miles from Cork city centre. The original house was constructed in the eighteenth century and was situated on 24 acres of garden and parkland.

Dan and Josephine O'Sullivan purchased the house in 1995 and opened the 57 bedroom hotel in October of 1997.

The hotel has undergone significant investment and expansion since. In 1998 a further 22 bedrooms were added along with extensive car parking facilities at a cost of 2.5 million. Two years later three conference rooms while in 2003 the Garden Room was completely refurbished at a cost of 400,000.

The latest and largest restructuring has just been completed with the addition of a 10,000 square foot, ten treatment room spa, a new leisure club and 15 "spa bedrooms".

Outdoor decking was also added to all ground floor bedrooms. The hotel facilities now comprise 93 bedrooms, including five suites in the old house, the spa, the leisure club, 11 conference and banqueting rooms, a 140 seater restaurant and extensive public areas and bar facilities.

"Achieving the Award of Excellence has delivered real benefits to all aspects of the business", says General Manager Justin McCarthy. "It has helped us develop real joined up management thinking.

There is awareness in all departments of the activities of the other departments. Everyone understands the importance of the outputs of everyone else and this helps with overall productivity and teamworking."

A key factor in the achievement was the buy in of the staff. "Every member of our 130 strong staff has taken ownership of all of the improvements which we have achieved", says McCarthy.

"And these improvements covered every aspect of our activities from customer retention to waste reduction."

Owner and managing director Dan O'Sullivan is quick to add his agreement to this point. "Three quarters of our customer comments are compliments on our staff", he says.

"The majority of our business is corporate based during the week with a strong leisure market at weekends. The chief executive of one of Ireland's leading banks is a regular guest and he came to me recently and asked me what we were doing here. He said his organisation need to do the same in terms of staff motivation. That's how impressed he was with our staff."

He also pays tribute to the management team who led the effort. "We have a 15 person management team here and they all pout in a huge amount of their own time on the project", says O'Sullivan. "Apart from doing their own work they put in extra time both on the project and in supporting each other. I have to add that I had very little, if anything, to do with it. The credit for the award belongs entirely to the management team and the staff. I also have to pay tribute to Failte Ireland whose assistance and support has been invaluable in achieving this award."

Among the key benefits of the award cited by O'Sullivan are improved staff retention and recruitment. "The systems we have put in place mean that if we need to replace anyone in almost any position we will be able to do so by internal promotion", he says.

"Furthermore, in terms of recruiting staff people will be attracted to come and work in a hotel which operates to business excellence standards."