From tiny room to golden moment – our night at the British Youth Travel Awards
There are some evenings that start quietly and then turn into a story you’ll tell for years. Our trip to the British Youth Travel Awards at London’s Ministry of Sound was one of those.
When we booked our tickets for the awards, the BETA team helpfully suggested a nearby place to stay: Rest Up, a short walk from the venue. We were told it would be simple and basic – clean, small rooms, nothing fancy. Just to stay the nigh. Perfect, we thought. We just needed a bed and an alarm clock.
We opened the door to our room and stopped.
Yes, it was tiny… but it was also full of care. Towels folded beautifully. Chocolates and sparkling water waiting for us. Vegan crisps. Lovely toiletries lined up just so. Two small bottles of champagne with flutes ready on the window sill. And on the bed, a printed, personalised note addressed to me and Dan – complete with a little map showing us the route to Ministry of Sound.
I had been expecting “basic”. What we received was thoughtful. It was a small but powerful reminder about open-mindedness and gratitude: you never really know how far someone has gone to make you feel welcome until you step into the room.
From there we walked to Ministry of Sound, following that little map. I’d heard about this iconic venue for years, but never quite managed to visit. The entrance was bathed in red light, with a hint of smoke in the air – just enough to make you feel that something special might be about to happen.
Inside, there were drinks, canapés, music, and a sea of familiar faces from the youth and educational travel world. We said hello to friends and colleagues, chatted to the other finalists in the Best Education Provider category, and genuinely meant it when we agreed that simply being shortlisted already felt like a win.
Then the awards began. Our category came up. I started filming the screen as they read out the names of all the finalists, proudly thinking how far our small school in Bath has come. And then I heard it:
“The winner is… Languages United.”
For a second or two my brain refused to process it. Then came the mixture of shock, joy and disbelief, followed by a slightly over excited walk to the stage. We smiled for the cameras, accepted the Gold award, and went back to our seats still asking each other, “Did that really just happen?”
The rest of the night passed in a whirl of photos, dancing, delicious food and happy conversations. Somewhere in the middle of it all, we texted the team in Bath to share the news. It felt important that they knew straight away that all their hard work, care and creativity had been recognised at national level.
In the morning, we came back down to earth in the nicest possible way. At Rest Up, Paul, the Operations Manager, greeted us with complimentary breakfast vouchers and a big smile.
“How did it go last night?” he asked.
When we told him we’d won, he congratulated us warmly, as if he’d known us for years. We left thinking that we would happily stay there again – and that we might even use Rest Up for future student groups. That’s what personalisation and friendliness do: they build bridges.
It also echoed what we try to do at Languages United. We may be a small, family-run school, but we put a huge amount of thought into every single detail: the way we welcome students, the way we communicate with agents and group leaders, the way we match students and homestays, the way we design courses, projects and experiences that help our students feel at home in a new culture.
Winning Gold for Best Education Provider was a wonderful moment. But underneath the glitter and the lights at Ministry of Sound, the message felt very simple:
People always remember how you made them feel.
That’s true in a hostel room, true at an awards ceremony, and true every day in our classrooms and homestays in Bath. And that, more than anything, is what we’ll carry forward from this golden night.
