ILUNION Hotels becomes the first hotel company in the world to win the EFQM Global Award 2025 and to achieve the EFQM 700+ Seal.
Its management model, an international example of purpose-driven leadership and business excellence
October 17, 2025
ILUNION Hotels has been recognized with the EFQM Global Award 2025, the highest international award for business excellence, at a gala held on the night of October 16 in Tarragona, which brought together representatives of leading organizations from around the world in sustainability, innovation, and responsible leadership.
With this recognition, ILUNION Hotels becomes the first hotel company in the world to achieve this level of excellence, consolidating its position as an international benchmark in responsible and purpose-driven management. The award recognizes its ability to combine profitability and humanism, sustainability and innovation, demonstrating that business excellence can also have a transformative social impact.
For José Ángel Preciados, CEO of ILUNION Hotels, “this award is confirmation that our purpose, our values, and our management model can coexist with business excellence. It represents the recognition of a vision shared by the entire ONCE Social Group, which shows that it is possible to be profitable, innovative, and deeply human at the same time. At ILUNION Hotels, we aspire to be a unique and inspiring model for companies in the sector and for all our stakeholders, demonstrating that another way of doing business—one that is more inclusive, sustainable, and human—is not only possible but necessary.”
The path to the EFQM 700+ Seal: excellence in record time
Obtaining the EFQM 700+ Seal marks another milestone in ILUNION Hotels‘ journey of continuous improvement. In just five years, the company has progressed from EFQM 500+ (2020) to EFQM 600+ (2023) and, now, to EFQM 700+ (2025), reaching this level in a shorter time frame than is typical between assessments—which reinforces its organizational maturity and commitment to excellence.
The EFQM 700+ Seal distinguishes organizations that exceed this demanding evaluation, a prerequisite for being eligible for the Global Award. Only 14 organizations worldwide have been candidates for the recognition in the 2025 cycle, which is considered the most rigorous process in global business management. According to the European Foundation for Quality Management, the Global Awards “are now more popular, inclusive, and demanding than ever,” and the recognized entities “represent what it means to lead with clarity, listen attentively, and move forward with purpose,” consolidating themselves as the maximum international benchmark for excellence and continuous improvement.
In its evaluation report, EFQM experts highlight the extraordinary consistency of the ILUNION Hotels model and its ability to integrate purpose and results: “Not once did we hear a comment or witness an action that contradicted the purpose or values; we saw them integrated into every behavior, decision, and gesture. At ILUNION Hotels, decisions are not made primarily considering economic benefit, but purpose.” The report also underscores the solidity of the strategic plan—aligned with the SDGs—a customer experience focused on inclusion and sustainability, innovation with a social purpose, and ethical leadership that inspires trust, commitment, and continuous improvement.
The company’s purpose of “Building a better world with everyone included” was also noted as one of the major keys to its transformation: “It is not just a call for responsible management, but a vision that reinterprets the traditional hotel promise of ‘all-inclusive’ into a model where all people are truly included.”
Excellence in the management of a unique model
The hotel company of the ONCE Social Group combines inclusion, sustainability, and innovation as the cornerstones of its responsible tourism model and levers for continuous improvement in efficiency, customer experience, and social impact.
True to these principles, ILUNION Hotels has consolidated itself as a leader in social inclusion in the hotel sector, as the hotelier with the best performance in the social and environmental impact standards of the B Corp certification, and is the only one in the world with all its hotels certified in Universal Accessibility (UNE 170001-2) and to have the BREEAM seal in all its establishments.
Preciados points out that “this model demonstrates that excellence and commitment are not at odds with purpose: we innovate to advance, but also to include. This recognition is possible thanks to the commitment, talent, and passion of the people who make up ILUNION Hotels, who make it a reality that business excellence and humanity can move in the same direction.”
