Tin Dragon Rail Cottages awarded for excellence

The award is reserved for businesses that consistently receive excellent reviews on the travel website, and have received the Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years.

The Tin Dragon Trail Cottages are run by Christine Booth, her partner Graham Cashion, and their son James.

Dr Booth said she believed the key to success was hospitality.

"Hospitality means being aware of your clients' needs, giving people time when they want time, and stepping back when they don't want it," she said.

"When we set up our cottages I put my own travel experience behind it and picked out the things that I really liked, and it comes down to what I call being hospitable."

Dr Booth said she appreciated that her clients took the time to post reviews, because often people were too busy.

"It's a nice recognition, because we're only a small business, so it's nice that our clients actually take the time to put in reviews," she said.

"For us, suffering the usual Tasmanian problem of no bookings for months over winter you can't exactly be swamped with reviews."

Although fully booked over the past weekend, winter is traditionally slow for tourism businesses in Branxholm.

Dr Booth said problems had been exacerbated while the Australian dollar was high.

"It's not that we were relying on overseas people, just that I think generally people were not travelling," she said.

"Our bread and butter clients were mostly from Victoria, and they just weren't coming.

"It's starting to improve. We've had our best summer season for several years."