Founder of umi hotels receives prestigious Acorn Award

Steve Lowy, owner and managing director of umi hotels, has been named one of the 2010 recipients of Caterer & Hotelkeeper Magazine’s Acorn Award that acknowledges flair within hospitality.

Each year “thirty under thirty” emerging hospitality industry figures are chosen to receive the reputable Acorn Award.  In the award’s 24th year, Steve Lowy, 29, became an honoured recipient of the award which lists household names Gary Rhodes and Marco Pierre White amongst its previous winners.

The Acorns celebrate the industry’s top rising stars, from chefs, to operations managers to entrepreneurs.  Winners of this award are nominated by their fellow employees for making a positive and outstanding impact through their work. Acorn recipients are then selected by a judging panel who recognises them as the future of the industry.  The judges obviously saw the qualities that they were looking for in Lowy.  His enthusiasm and determination for the success of the umi hotel brand have proven to be exceptional.

After studying hospitality and tourism at Salford University, Lowy became the general manager of a backpackers hostel in London.  In 2007, he opened the umi London, in the former Westminster Hotel.  The umi group now boasts three locations including Brighton and Moscow and there are plans for further international expansion.

Lowy is not unfamiliar with recognition for his work within the industry.  Umi London has been named one of the ‘Top 50 Budget Hotels in the World’ by the Telegraph.  In 2008 Lowy was recognised as the North and West London Business Person of the Year and was then named the “one to watch in tourism” in The Courvoisier The Future 500 list.

All of the Acorn Award winners attended the weekend-long recognition ceremony at the ABode hotel in Chester.  Team-building activities took place, such as making chariots from cardboard and racing them through a course, providing the winners with an ideal opportunity to network with fellow industry professionals.  The celebration continued with a reception and gourmet dinner in The Michael Caines Restaurant before the formal presentations the following day.  Winners were praised for their achievements and then became members of the respected Acorn alumni.