STAFF at one of York's most popular hotels are celebrating as the hotel has made the final of a prestigious national award.

The Monk Bar Hotel, will battle it out with six other hotels for the title of Best Independent Hotel in the Group Travel Organiser Awards.

Staff at the hotel, part of the Best Western chain, won through from an initial pool of 200 other hotels and will now send a party to The Hilton in London for the final ceremony later this month.

Director June Nelsey said the hotel's success was down to its high quality staff and prime city centre location.

She said: "We tend to employ quite a lot of overseas staff from a wide range of countries who also speak good English. This makes for excellent communication with the customers, which keeps the levels of service we provide consistently high.

"We are also in an excellent place for our customers to explore the best of York and North Yorkshire. Everyone here is really excited about the ceremony. We'll see what happens."

Updated: 10:18 Saturday, June 02, 2001