Worldwide: Serviced Apartment News has partnered with Serviced Apartment/Accommodation Forum for Assessment and Accreditation (SAFFAA) for the development of a global register of responsible accreditors for serviced apartments and alternative accommodation.
SAFFAA has announced that the extended stay industry has agreed to create an agnostic global register of assessors and accreditors that can be accessed by all operators, whether operating one unit or 100,000+ units; and has also reached an agreement to create a global standard for a ‘lite’ assessment programme/minimum standard for the industry, to help set ‘a benchmark of entry’ for operators.
These developments are ground-breaking for the industry in providing choice and an agnostic overview of assessors to help operators to make an educated decision about the best accreditation that mirrors their clientele, their product and/or their location and with a global minimum standard of entry.
The move supports local, regional and global accreditors in their goal of ensuring all operators can access education and professional standards and support, and also meets the continued desire and drive of the wider industry, including agents, corporates and bookers for safe and secure, clean and legal assessed and accredited accommodation globally.
The latest SAFFAA meeting, moderated by David Clare of TBTN, and hosted by Jo Layton and Clare Ace of CAP Worldwide, brought together some of the most respected and influential leaders in assessment and accreditation, along with operators, agents, hybrids, press and dedicated industry supporters with a goal to regroup and drive forward the targets set in January 2020, with an enhanced focus on the validity and traceability of badges.
Its goals are:
• To achieving a minimum standard of entry for safe and secure, clean and legal products by operators of serviced apartments/alternative accommodation with an aim to efficiently cover the estimated units available across 195 countries
• To deliver an agnostic global register of assessors and accreditors to the market
Jo Layton, founder of SAFFAA, said: “It is only with trust, respect, discussion, debate and a shared systemic vision that this incredible team of passionate industry leaders, who in a normal world are fierce competitors every day, have come together to represent, share, legitimise and support the serviced accommodation industry. The agreed goal of SAFFAA is to ensure that everyone who provides or uses an extended stay product is educated and safe to operate, to buy or to use responsibly.”
Serviced Apartment News, as independent industry representatives, will be supporting SAFFAA to distribute the SAFFAA Assessment/Accreditor Survey and will help collate the register, which will be hosted on SAFFAA.org and Serviced Apartment News sites once completed.
George Sell, editor of Serviced Apartment News, said: “The Covid pandemic has heightened awareness of the need for accommodation providers to offer a consistent product that customers know they can trust. Accreditation and assessment can play a big part in offering that reassurance and we think it’s important for providers to have access to a comprehensive and informative list of accreditation initiatives to enable them to decide which is the right scheme or schemes for them. We’re very pleased to work with SAFFAA to ensure that this register becomes a reality, and hope it will be a useful resource for accommodation owners and operators.”
SAFFAA is a forum of extended stay leaders, assessors, accreditors, operators, agents, hybrids and industry supporters from across all areas of the serviced accommodation industry who have a joint passion for driving global accreditation and the use of safe and secure, clean and legal accommodation across the globe.
Founded by Jo Layton in October 2019, members of the forum include:
Operators, agents and hybrids
BridgeStreet – Juliet Howie/Mathias Saleborn
CAP Worldwide – Clare Ace/Andrew Hopgood/Jo Layton
Forenom – Jussi Saarinen
Oakwood – Ken Moore
Q Apartments – Lorna Keen/Krystal Taylor
Rotana – Keith Barron
Stay AKA/Korman – Karen Mills/MJ Paschall
Synergy – Moreno Milenkovic/Seth Hanson
Assessors and Accreditors
GSA – Nick Hawkins/David Wood
I-PRAC – Chris Maughan
ISAAP – Steve Martin
QIT/M Assessment – Deborah Heather/Andy Woodward
Press and industry supporters
BTN – Mark Frary/Catherine Chetwynd/Andy Hoskins
EuRA/ARP – Tad Zurlinden
SABA – Richard Majewski
Saxbury – Ben Davies
Serviced Apartment News – George Sell
TBTN – David Clare
If you would like to feature in the assessment register or are interested in hearing updates about what SAFFAA is doing, please email info@saffaa.org
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