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What to expect from a Quality Assessment, and how to make the most of it.
All of the assessor's employed by Quality in Tourism, Visit Britain's assessment body, are trained professional assessors who all have a great amount of experience in carrying out assessments and providing structured, constructive feedback, both written and verbal. They are trained to ignore personal preferences and will have undergone detailed training in the assessment of self-catering properties. All assessors throughout England will have been trained to score quality in exactly the same way. They will be looking at the property from a purely consumer viewpoint.The assessment is not criticism for criticism's sake, but will be constructive, detailed and structured and is designed to help you improve certain aspects of your business, should you choose to do so. It is beneficial to take the opportunity to accompany the assessor as they give ‘on-the-spot' advice on possible quality improvements and constructive observation.
The feedback is not prescriptive and it is totally up to you whether you choose to act on the assessor's findings. The assessor's job is not to change your business but to give you advice based on his or her extensive experience as a ‘professional client'. Assessors are taught to ignore personal preferences and will be benchmarking properties to the standards laid down in the ‘Self-catering Accommodation Quality Standard' manual.
An assessor will pre-book (via agency or direct). At the visit they will check that all of the Minimum Entry Requirements are in place and assess all aspects of the operation. The assessment will be done under the following headings:
- - Exterior
- - Cleanliness
- - Management Efficiency
- - Public areas (living and dining areas)
- - Bedrooms
- - Bathrooms and WC's
- - Kitchen and kitchen inventory
- - Additional facilities
During the course of their visit the assessors will answer a series of detailed questions which will be used to calculate a percentage for each section assessed. Aggregate scores for all the sectors give an overall score for the property which is then expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score. This quality percentage is then used to confirm whether a property be accredited within this scheme.
A written report will then be sent to the agent after the visit. This will follow within 21 days of the visit taking place, and will cover the sections outlined previously. As mentioned earlier, the aim of the report is to provide you with independent and structured feedback on how your operation performed at the time of the visit, and to give pointers as to where improvements could be made should you choose to do so.
If you have any specific questions about the assessment process then please do telephone 0845 300 6996 or e-mail qualityintourism@gslglobal.com