We would like to offer our congratulations to Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre and Royal Holloway, University of London who have both achieved Premier Status. This reflects the hard work put in over many years showing their commitment to Hospitality Assured to provide a structured approach on their journey to Excellence. Our other Premier status clients either managed to maintain or improve their scores. This becomes more and more challenging as the scores increase; demonstrating commitment to sustainable excellence.   We remain passionate about encouraging and motivating our Community whether starting on their journey and using Hospitality Assured as a structured framework for best practice or for our higher scoring and longer-term clients to optimise business and service excellence.

We have also been working hard with new clients including the magnificent Grantley Hall which promises to be THE Hotel opening of 2019. Andrew McPherson (ex GM of Lucknam Park Hotel) is leading the grand opening of this luxury hotel. It’s all change at Lucknam Park and we wish Claire Randall (ex MD) all the very best in her new role as GM at the Relais & Chateaux Idle Rocks and St Mawes Hotel.  Welcome to other recent new clients including Blind Veterans UK  helping ex-service men and women discover a life after sight loss, the Mitie Team at Marsh & McLennan - Tower Place London, who manage all aspects of the facility of this global professional services firm as well as Mitie 1Team @ Vodafone Retail Engineering Services, and Morden College a charity that provides accommodation for older people.

This year's prestigious event will be held at the fabulous Waldorf Hotel, London on Monday 10th June.

This is your opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of your team and to network with like-minded people committed to excellence and winning awards.  The benefits of entering and winning awards can improve business performance and is a valuable marketing strategy. Read more here.  This year we are presenting three new awards for Excellence in;  Leadership, Sustainability and Employee Engagement. These recognise amazing achievements in important areas especially during challenging times.   These awards will be decided by the last assessment scores of the relevant criteria from all our accredited organisations; so five awards will be determined on scores alone. For the first time we will also be celebrating and recognising our new Premier accredited organisations.  We look forward to receiving and reading your submissions for the Team of the Year Award (here are some top tips to help).  

The summary of Awards is as follows:

1. Best newcomer – The highest scoring newly accredited organisation
2. Most improved score – The organisation with the most improved overall score
3. Excellence in Leadership – The highest score for aspects of leadership
4. Excellence in Sustainability - The highest score relating to environmental, social and economic practices
5. Excellence in Employee Engagement – The highest score related to creating a positive environment where people care and know they are making a difference
6. Team of the Year – for a team/organisation that have applied the standard in an innovative way, demonstrating their commitment to Excellence, Collaboration and Making a Difference.

To enter, please describe in no more than 500 words why you believe that your nomination deserves the award.  We need your submissions by Friday 3rd May at 9am!!

Full details and how to book for the Awards and Dinner can be found here

We recently held a strategy day to focus on the future and consider changes without ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’.

Although constant change is the new norm, it is nevertheless always challenging. When considering change a good short and inspiring read is ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ by Dr Spencer Johnson. It helps see change and new opportunities as an exciting adventure. The result is we are looking to review the terminology within the Hospitality Assured Standard to reflect the diversity of our industry and the Community we serve. This will make it easier for the Community to understand and help with ‘Optimising Business and Service Excellence', our mantra. Our new feedback questionnaire facilitated by Critiquie is another way we are making it easier for you all … you know how much we go on about feedback so please complete after your assessment so we can continue to improve the service we provide, alternatively give us a call. All this is part of our growth strategy and our ongoing focus on sales giving more opportunity for networking, benchmarking and sharing best practice; a win-win for all.

Our next event on the 3rd April is to be held at the amazing St Monica Trust (Premier Hospitality Assured)) who won the hearts of the nation through the Channel 4 hit TV show, ‘Old People’s Home for 4 year Olds’. The event will be held in the newly opened Chocolate Quarter located on the old Fry/Cadbury site in Bristol; a not to be missed visit. ‘Raising the bar through Leadership, Sustainability and Collaboration’ is the topic. Spaces are limited so initially we are offering three per company. Avoid disappointment and book early. Click here for more details

We are pleased to say that we are currently negotiating with the Caribbean Tourist Organisation to renew their license agreement with Hospitality Assured. They have had their most successful year ever with six new accreditations. Well done to Sharon Banfield and her team and keep up the excellent work. See their amazing achievements in the Community News section.

It’s a cupcake!!  Max and Heather had the pleasure of assessing Mitie at Vodafone who have recently achieved Hospitality Assured Accreditation across the entire Vodafone Retail Estate - they celebrated with these delicious and delightful cupcakes.