Beach house nabs top tourism award

Albany’s Beach House at Bayside has taken out a prestigious national tourism award on the back of a significant expansion last year.

The boutique bed and breakfast was awarded the gold medal in the Hosted Accommodation category at the 2016 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards in Darwin last Friday.

Beach House, located on Middleton Beach, offers guests lux-ury accommodation with a fo-cus on local food and wine. The Albany bed and breakfast won the award in November to qualify as a finalist for the national award.

Beach House manager Sally Pullin said it was a great feeling to be recognised nationally.

“We were very thrilled to win the gold medal,” she said.

“It’s a big competition so it was a nice surprise.”

Ms Pullin took over the business with husband Craig four years ago from her parents.

She said they had maintained the business’ focus on guest experience.

Since taking over, Ms Pullin said the main changes in the business had related to the evolution of technology and she attributed the award to a range of factors.

“We’ve been through an ex-pansion where we have gone from seven rooms to 10,” she said.

“We’ve ... invested a lot in our international marketing recently, so it’s been a bit of everything.”