Millennium and Cop-thorne Hotels, which includes the Copthorne Hotel Newcastle, one of the group's best performing hotels, has been named Hotel Group of the Year by the RAC, the first time the title has been awarded.

The RAC Awards committee said that Millennium hotels and resorts set the highest quality of international standards in the hotel and hospitality industry throughout 2002, and that the group not only met, but often exceeded the exceptional standards demanded by today's travellers.

Using a quality grading system based on their inspectors' overnight stays at the hotels and their subsequent reports, hotel groups were nominated by the inspectors to the RAC Awards Committee, who made the final decision.

Based on the consistently high standard of reports from inspectors, the committee chose Millennium Hotels and Resorts as the first recipient of the Hotel Group of the Year accolade.

Tony Potter, chief operating officer of Millennium Hotels and Resorts, said: "The RAC is a world renowned and well respected organisation therefore to be named by them as Hotel Group of the Year is a prestigious honour."