The National Business Travel Association and The Wall Street Journal have announced winners of the first-ever Business Traveler Innovation Awards.

Corporate travelers nominated services, products and ideas that help to make business trips easier and more productive. Submissions were categorized, and the public voted for their favorites. The winners in each of the eight categories which include sustainability, well-being and efficiency will be honored at the 2010 NBTA International Convention & Exposition on August 9 in Houston.

Westin Hotels turned the travel industry on its head and sparked a hotel bedding revolution with the 1999 launch of the Heavenly Bed®: an icon that inspired countless imitators, ignited the hotel-bed wars and forever changed the way travelers sleep. Just in time for the bed's 11th anniversary, Westin's iconic Heavenly Bed was voted as the number-one business travel innovation in the category of "Traveler Comfort and Well-Being" in the first-ever Business Traveler Innovation Awards.

"Westin's Heavenly Bed forever changed the hotel industry's bed offerings; we are thrilled that our most important critics, our guests, have taken notice," commented Nancy London, Vice President, Global Brand Management, for Westin Hotels & Resorts.  "Since we launched the Heavenly Bed in 1999, we've further strengthened our commitment to bringing a little bit of Heaven to our guests through new Heavenly retail items and innovative wellness programming."

In the decade since the launch of the Heavenly Bed, more than 75 million guests have tucked themselves into Heavenly Beds at Westin hotels around the world including U.S. Presidents, Hollywood royalty and professional athletes and more than 30,000 beds and 100,000 pillows have been sold. The sumptuous, 10-layer Heavenly Bed has grown from cult favorite to well-loved classic, and Westin has expanded Heavenly into a full-lifestyle brand, with similarly luxurious offerings for the bath, the baby, and even the dog.

Eleven years ago, Westin received a wake-up call from travelers, who said in a survey that the most important service a hotel can offer is a good night's sleep. Westin spent more than $30 million to create the perfect night's sleep and introduce 52,000 new Heavenly beds in its 39,500 guest rooms.

In fact:

• There are now more than 97,000 Heavenly Beds in over 65,000 Westin guestrooms worldwide.
• Westin jump-started the hotel-retail phenomenon after receiving hundreds of inquiries from guests who wanted to know where they could purchase their own Heavenly Bed.
• The company has sold more than 30,000 Heavenly Beds, 100,000 pillows, 32,000 sheets, and 13,000 shower heads to consumers hoping to bring home the Heavenly experience.  Items are sold through a partnership with Nordstrom and online 
• The Heavenly Bed was such a success that every major hotel brand followed suit with the development of signature beds – affecting more than 5 million hotel beds across the globe.
• In early, 2010, Westin Hotels was the first hotel brand to launch an online store front with Amazon.com. Westin curated a collection of wellness focused products from like-minded brands as well as signature Westin products.