Quest Apartment Hotels has taken home the Tourism Impact Award at the 2026 Mumbrella Travel Marketing Awards, recognising the real-world impact of its Doing Better program.
Some awards recognise a great campaign. Others recognise what happens when a good idea becomes part of how a business operates. For Quest Apartment Hotels, winning the Tourism Impact Award at the 2026 Mumbrella Travel Marketing Awards is recognition of the latter.
The Tourism Impact Award is about recognising travel brands that are using their reach to make a genuine difference, whether that means supporting communities, making travel more inclusive, protecting the environment or helping people travel more responsibly. And it’s not enough to simply talk about doing good: entrants need to show what they’re actually doing and the difference it’s making.
For Anthea Dimitrakopoulos, General Manager Brand, Digital and ESG for Quest Apartment Hotels, that’s what Doing Better has always been about.
“Doing Better has never been about one campaign or one initiative. It’s about making sure our values are reflected in the decisions we make every day, from the partners we choose and the way we support our people, to how we reduce our environmental impact and contribute to the communities our Business Owners call home,” she says.
So, what does Doing Better actually mean?
Doing Better brings Quest’s environmental, social and governance commitments together under one simple idea: success isn’t only about looking after the people who stay at Quest, but having a positive impact on the communities and environments around its properties too.
That takes many forms. A guest at a participating Quest property can choose to skip a room clean, triggering a donation to Hotels for Trees to help plant a tree. When a property is refurbished, Quest’s partnership with Indigenous-owned social enterprise Project Net Zero helps give unwanted furniture another life with community organisations rather than sending it to landfill.
For travellers with accessibility needs, Quest has worked with Accessible Accommodation on independent accreditation, staff training and making accessible rooms easier to identify and book online.
Doing Better also reaches into the way Quest supports its own people. Initiatives introduced across the business include paid menstrual and menopause leave, fertility leave, pregnancy loss leave and expanded paid parental leave, part of a broader push to create a more equitable and inclusive workplace.
Big ideas, local impact
Some of the most visible examples of Doing Better can be found in the partnerships that extend Quest’s impact beyond a stay.
Through Sony Foundation’s You Can Stay program, Quest properties provide a home away from home for young regional Australians who need to travel for cancer treatment. A national partnership with Foodbank Australia supports efforts to tackle food insecurity through donations, volunteering and food drives, while Quest’s longstanding relationship with Housing All Australians has helped support projects for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
The idea also plays out much closer to home. Quest properties are owned and operated by local Business Owners, and through Quest for a Cause, they’re empowered to support the organisations and issues that matter in their own communities.
Across the network, that has translated into everything from fundraising and volunteering to food relief, tree planting and support for families spending long days at hospital. It means a national commitment to Doing Better can look a little different from one Quest property to the next, shaped by the communities they’re part of.
An award for impact, with more to come
For Quest, the Tourism Impact Award is recognition of what Doing Better has already achieved, while the program itself continues to evolve.
“We’re incredibly proud to have that work recognised with the Tourism Impact Award, but what excites us most is seeing Doing Better continue to grow across our network and finding new ways we can make a meaningful difference,” Anthea says.
The award offers a chance to celebrate how far Doing Better has already reached, but the name itself carries an expectation that the work keeps evolving. For Quest, that means continuing to look for practical ways to make a positive difference for its guests, its people, local communities and the planet.
Discover more of the people, partnerships and initiatives behind Doing Better, and how Quest is working to create positive impact for its guests, communities and the planet. Explore Doing Better here.
