Dos and don’ts when lobbying for votes

Achieving a British Travel Awards accreditation is the most sought-after accolade by companies operating in leisure travel and recognised as the industry’s gold standard of by consumers.

Our bespoke algorithms query the voting database across multiple conditions and flag possible voting anomalies. Each year these reports have identified a number of incidents where companies had “sailed close to the wind” or failed to read the small print about acceptable lobbying and voting practices.

So there is no misunderstanding, here are the key points about how to lobby for your customers’ votes.

	Do lobby for votes in your elected categories. The most successful companies are those who engage with consumers about their participation in the awards not necessarily those companies with the largest customer list!
	Do promote the British Travel Awards Voters’ Prize Draw as an incentive for consumer participation. e.g. “Vote in the British Travel Awards for your chance to win a great prize.”
	Do not suggest in any communications that entry into the British Travel Awards Voters’ Prize Draw is subject to voting for your company. e.g. YOU CANNOT SAY; “Vote for us [company] for your chance to win a great prize”.
	Do not offer an independent prize or incentive, conditional upon or associated with, voting for a specific company or brand in the British Travel Awards.
	Nominee companies do include the link to your direct voting app in all consumer communications. This will enable your customers to register and vote for your company, in your elected categories, without having to navigate the main voting form. They can then submit their votes or link to the main voting form, vote in additional categories and answer the bonus question to double their entries in the prize draw.
	Do not engage in third-party or proxy voting. Voter registrations originating from some hapless intern instructed to work through a company’s customer list or out-sourced to a bot-farm will be identified by our security software. Those votes will be void or if a blatant violation is identified the company will be disqualified.
	Travel industry employees are eligible to vote as they are also considered as consumers of leisure travel products and services. They should register as an individual using their residential address and personal email account.
	Travel industry employees should not vote from their place of work i.e. accessing the internet from a common IP address or company network.