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By Deborah LeggateDecember 7th 2011

The Islesburgh House Youth Hostel in Lerwick has been named as the “Best Hostel in the World 2011” by Hostelling International (HI).

The announcement was made last night at a ceremony in Vienna, where Islesburgh manager Dale Smith was present to accept the prestigious award.

The award is given to the hostel with the highest overall customer rating on the Hostelling International website, www.hihostels.com. The site has 4,000 hostels affiliated to it, from 90 different countries, from Shetland to Sudan, Shanghai to Sweden.

Mr Smith was thrilled to accept the honour, which he dedicated to all the staff at Islesburgh. He said: “You can have a great building, but if you don't have great staff, you are not going to achieve anything.

“This award is recognition of the hard work and exceptional customer care our staff deliver day in day out, as well as the excellent facilities we have at the hostel. This is certainly a welcome Christmas present for everyone at Islesburgh.”

This is not the first accolade for the five-star hostel, which topped the 2010 Hostelling International poll in Europe for customer satisfaction, coming second worldwide by a mere one per cent.

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