Conde Nast Traveler ranks The Swag country inn number 2 among the top small hotels in the USA!
Read about The Swag Wednesday Picnics
Waynesville, NC (October 21, 2009) – Condé Nast Traveler has announced the results of its 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards, naming The Swag Country Inn in Waynesville, NC number two among the best small hotels in the entire country. The Swag scored 93.5 out of a possible 100 points, just .2 points away from securing the number one position. The awards will appear in the November issue and are derived from the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice survey. This year, 25,008 readers voted on more than 10,000 properties and destinations.
Surrounded by 250 acres atop a 5,000-foot ridge near Waynesville, N.C., (50 minutes west of Asheville), The Swag Country Inn embraces its majestic setting adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Swag offers 14 luxurious and distinctive accommodations, furnished with early American rustic antiques; most rooms have wood burning fireplaces, steam showers, balconies and private saunas. The cabins and main lodge are built of 18th and 19th century old hand hewn logs and local field stone.
“I am honored and thrilled to be chosen by the Conde Nast readers,” says Innkeeper and Owner Deener Matthews. “Our entire staff is both pleased and genuinely humbled to be ranked among such superlative properties.”
The Swag is also on the Conde Nast Traveler 2009 Gold List, last year Conde Nast Traveler’s People’s Choice Awards placed The Swag at #22 of the country’s top 100 hotels and the Inn is among the 129 hotels in North America chosen for National Geographic Traveler’s 2009 Stay List.
The Swag’s food is just as impressive as its setting. Chef Bryan Kimmett’s menus change daily and are inspired by what is ready to be harvested in The Swag’s kitchen garden and by the trust that his favorite local purveyors have put aside exactly what he needs for his slow cooking - what he calls comfort food with a twist.
The 29th season of The Swag will run from mid-April through the beginning of November 2010. To view a slideshow of The Swag (under the US Small Hotels) and a full list of winners go to: www.cntraveler.com/readerschoice.
Founded as a country inn by innkeeper and owner Deener Matthews in 1982, The Swag originally was built as a family home in 1971 by Deener and her husband, Dan, an Episcopal clergyman, who is rector emeritus of Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. Today, Deener manages the day-to-day operations at The Swag.
Every year since 1988, a select sample of Condé Nast Traveler readers have taken the Readers’ Choice Survey. In 2009, the questionnaire was available to all readers through a secure Web site. The final tabulations of 25,008 responses were done by Mediamark Research, Inc., of New York City. Poll categories (Cities, Hotels, etc.), and the criteria for each appear at the bottom of the first page in every category. Questionnaires contained lists of candidates (individual cities, hotels, etc.), and write-ins were allowed. Only candidates that received a required minimum number of responses were deemed eligible for an award. Each candidate was rated, by various criterion, on a five-point scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, poor. Criterion scores, which represent the percentage of respondents rating a candidate excellent or very good, were averaged to determine the final score—e.g., in the category of Islands, Maui’s 90.1 is the average of its scores for Activities, Atmosphere/Ambience, Beaches, Friendliness, Lodging, Restaurants, and Scenery.
For more about The Swag and other great inns and hotels near Asheville, see our Hotels & Inns Guide.
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