A hotel receptionist won £500k after she was encouraged to buy an Omaze ticket – by a guest who previously scooped a £2.5m home.
Lucky Hannah Symes, 31, picked up half-a-million in cash after she got ‘the world’s best tip’ from Jo Booth. Jo, winner of a £2.5million house in Yorkshire, came to stay at the hotel where Hannah worked. When mum-of-five Hannah was checking Jo in she said she “casually asked what Jo had planned during her stay”. It was then that Jo revealed that she was in Yorkshire as she’d just won an Omaze house.
Hannah, originally from Plymouth but now living in North Yorkshire, said: “I was just having a casual chat with the lovely Jo as I was checking her into the hotel, it was then she told me all about Omaze and why she was in Yorkshire.
“I thought to myself ‘that sounds like a bit of alright’. So I gave Omaze a Google and it all looked great, amazing houses and raising money for charities, so I thought, ‘what’s there to lose’ and signed up that very same day. Safe to say it’s the best question I’ve ever asked and the best tip I’ve ever had!” On the moment she found out she’d won half a million pounds, she said: “Just two months after meeting Jo, I got an email saying I’d won something and Omaze wanted to call me.
“I had been up since 5am that morning with the kids and was looking at Legoland for my son’s birthday. I was pricing it all up, but the cost was just astronomical, so I was feeling a bit disheartened about it as I wasn’t able to book anything. Before Omaze called to let me know exactly what I’d won, my head was going ten to the dozen thinking what it could be.
“I knew it wasn’t a house as the current draw hadn’t closed yet, but it just didn’t click that it might be money. Then the next thing I knew, Omaze was telling me I’d won half a million pounds! Our lives changed forever in that instant! I was stunned! It didn’t sink in and it was hard to compute the number! I had to write it down on a bit of paper to make sense of it-half a million is just an insane amount of money. The prize was drawn the day before my birthday and is obviously the best birthday present I’ve ever had!
“I could not believe it when the money landed in my account, I had to do a double take; I’ve never seen so many zeros in my life! As soon as I got the money, I started paying off all our outstanding bills. It was amazing seeing the bills disappear, but still having so much money left in the bank; it was the best feeling.”
On what she plans to do with her huge win: “As we currently rent, the big priority is using the cash to buy a home of our own. Last year, we got given notice on our previous property the day I went into labour with my youngest daughter Matilda, so we had the added drama of having to organise a move. It was very stressful, we didn’t have the stability we wanted.
“It hadn’t been the easiest of years in general, to be honest. I ended up giving birth to Matilda on the A64 in the back of an ambulance, as she had breached. We thought my partner Rob was going to have to deliver her with help from the ambulance service over the phone at one point!
“But now this money has come at the perfect time for us, it’s a miracle really! The kids are going to love the new house we buy, there’ll be loads of room for all of us, we can finally have some privacy for the first time in ten years!
“We’re currently looking at five or six-bedroom houses, I can’t believe we’re in the position to do that, it’s crazy! We’ve not told the kids yet, but they know something is up as we did all go to Legoland in style, and they’ve all got some new clothes. I can’t wait to see their faces light up when we tell them! We’re also going to Lapland for Christmas – at this rate, we’re not ruling out Disneyland!”
On what her win means to the family, Hannah, who often works 50-hour weeks said: ” £500,000 is a life-changing amount of money for us, it takes away all the stresses we previously had and allows us to look at life differently, we can plan for the future and have security. And, what’s more, it’s not just the stuff we can buy, it’s the time we can spend with the children now, to us, that’s priceless.”
Hannah has worked in the hospitality industry for 15 years and has been with partner Rob, 31, for five years. The couple share five children, Matilda, Rowan, Nathan, Lily and Gorgie. They currently live in a rented four-bedroom house in North Yorkshire.
Omaze Yorkshire Grand Prize Winner Jo Booth, won a £2.5 million house in October last year. She said: “I’m so happy that I encouraged Hannah to enter, she’s lovely and her beautiful family really deserves this win. I always leave a good tip whenever we go out, but nothing will ever top £500k! She said I’m her lucky charm now. I was joking that I really should be on commission from Omaze!”
James Oakes, President of Omaze, said: “We’re thrilled that Hannah and her family have won such a life-changing sum of money, and that it’s all down to one of our previous winners sharing her very own life-changing experience. We’re tremendously proud that not only do we transform the lives of our winners, but the Omaze Community has also raised over £77 million for good causes across the UK.”
The draw that Hannah entered helped raise £4.6 million for British Heart Foundation. It was the third time BHF has partnered with Omaze and brings the total raised for the charity to £7.6 million. The latest Omaze draw guarantees that one lucky person will win a stunning £4 million property in the Scottish Highlands, along with £250,000 in cas
The winner of the Omaze Million Pound House Draw, Scotland, will get the keys to a contemporary 4-bedroom property that sits on the shores of Loch Rannoch in Perthshire. The spectacular house offers uninterrupted views of the surrounding Scottish Highlands including the Black Woods of Rannoch and the Southern Rannoch mountains, as well as its very own all-weather tennis court.
In addition to making its Grand Prize Winner a multi-millionaire, Omaze has guaranteed a minimum donation of £1 million for charity partner Alzheimer’s Research UK. Draw entries for the Omaze Million Pound House Draw, Scotland, are available now HERE. The Grand Prize Draw closes on Sunday 30th March 2025 for online entries and Tuesday 1st April 2025 for postal entries.
Entrants can also choose to subscribe to Omaze to be automatically entered into every Grand Prize Draw each month and all Early Bird Prize Draws. Omaze subscribers receive four times the amount of entries compared to non-subscribers and can cancel their subscription at any time. For full terms and conditions, see the Omaze website. No purchase necessary to enter. Over 18s and UK residents only.
