Utah’s The Lodge At Blue Sky Wins ‘One To Watch’ At The World’s 50 Best Hotels Awards

05.09.2023 - 00:05 / forbes.com

The Lodge at Blue Sky by Auberge Resorts Collection has won the ‘Lavazza One To Watch Award’ ahead of the inaugural World’s 50 Best Hotels awards ceremony on September 19.

For the first time ever, 50 Best—the brand behind the well-regarded 50 Best Restaurants and 50 Best Bars lists—will be revealing their choices of top hotels from all around the world. While the full ranking of hotels won’t be revealed until September 19 at the inaugural World’s 50 Best Hotels ceremony in London, the winner of the One To Watch accolade (a title awarded to a hotel that has not made the main list but has the potential to do so in the future) has just been announced as The Lodge at Blue Sky, which first opened in 2019.

“We are hugely impressed with what The Lodge at Blue Sky has done by creating a luxury property that is in sync with, and celebrates, the environment surrounding it, with a love of nature and animals embedded in its DNA,” says Tim Brooke-Webb, Managing Director of The World’s 50 Best Hotels. “The Lodge at Blue Sky is showing the way forward for others in terms of running an environmentally conscious property that allows guests to experience and connect with the land, while still maintaining the highest levels of service and comfort.”

This is the only award selected by the 50 Best team, as the judging academy made up of 580 international experts handle the full ranking of hotels. It’s one of only two awards announced before the ceremony, the other being the Art of Hospitality award, which went to Scotland’s Gleneagles on August 22. “We have found that announcing one or two special awards in advance of the reveal of the list and awards ceremony shines a spotlight on individual properties and their particular strengths, where otherwise those elements might get overshadowed by the ranking itself,” says Brooke-Webb.

Joe Ogdie, General Manager of the 46-key Lodge at Blue Sky says he’s humbly honored, calling it “a testament to the team's efforts and consistent push to be better.”

He attributes the award to the lodge’s unique offering.“[Owners] Mike and Barb [Phillips] are true stewards of the earth and have created six mediums through which guests can connect with nature: The understated elegance of the resort's organic architecture; the discovery of our 3,500 private acres through curated mountain adventures; a cliffside wellness sanctuary; a female-led regenerative farm, which eschews modern farm machinery in favor of old-school hand tools; the Saving Gracie Equine Healing Foundation, started by Barb Phillips, who is deeply committed to rescuing horses from abuse and neglect; and elevated epicurean experiences that celebrate heirloom ingredients, either grown lovingly onsite at the farm or ethically sourced