Hotel Alexandrina, a boutique hotel in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is the latest hotel in the Caribbean to become Hospitality Assured (HA) certified, an international certification program for service excellence.
The HA certification is owned by the Institute of Hospitality and managed by Hospitality Limited, which is based in the United Kingdom. The program was developed specifically for the tourism sector to promote and reward service and business excellence. The program is managed in the Caribbean by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).
The program consists of nine key areas and 44 criteria that must be addressed to gain the HA certification. The key areas are: Customer Research, the Customer Service Promise, Business Leadership and Planning, Operational Planning & Standards of Performance, Resources (people, equipment, facilities), Training and Development, Service Delivery, Service Recovery and Customer Satisfaction Improvement.
Upon certification completion, Hotel Alexandrina was selected as one of the host hotels for the August 2019 Sustainable Tourism Conference.
The CTO said it views the project as critical in helping to strengthen business performance in the Caribbean by promoting a culture of quality, service excellence and improvement.
In recent months, several businesses have become HA certified after completing the qualification process. These include Alicia’s Inn and Baker’s Suites in St. Maarten, as well as Ocean Terrace Inn in St. Kitts.
Currently, there are over 90 companies signed on to the program with a service quality management system in place. Other Caribbean companies approved in recent months include Holiday Taxi Limited in Saint Lucia; Grand Coastal Inn and Old Fort Tours in Guyana; and Sunbreeze Hotel in Belize.
For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, visit www.OneCaribbean.org.
For more information on Hotel Alexandrina, visit www.hotelalexandrina.com.
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