Queenstown's Eichardt's Private Hotel has been rated New Zealand's best at the annual awards of industry magazine Hotel Management.
The hotel beat 20 finalists, including five other Queenstown operators, to win the HM Awards' ''Best New Zealand Hotel'' title at a ceremony in Sydney on Friday.
Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa received a ''highly commended'' in the same category, while Crowne Plaza Queenstown employee Fiona Lawson was one of two winners in the Concierge category.
Eichardt's general manager James Cavanagh said the award was particularly satisfying for the hotel's ''tight crew'' of 15 staff because the judges were industry insiders.
''As an industry award it carries a lot more cache and endorses what we are doing operationally.''
The gong continues a run of success for Eichardt's, which was named Best Luxury Ski Resort Hotel at last year's World Luxury Hotel Awards. It was also rated one of the world's top eight hotels by Tatler magazine in 2012.
The other Queenstown finalists in the Best New Zealand Hotel category were Crowne Plaza Queenstown, Hilton Queenstown, Hotel St Moritz and The Rees Hotel and Luxury Apartments.
Mr Cavanagh said the strong showing by the resort's hotels showed the region had a ''high number of quality operations''.
Other ''highly commended'' recipients from Queenstown were The Rees Hotel employees Mark Rose and Ben Batterbury in the Hotel Manager and Hotel Chef categories respectively, and Millbrook Resort in the New Zealand Regional Property category.
