The accreditation has been launched by Visit Isle of Man in conjunction with tourism and hospitality quality assessment provider; Quality In Tourism (QiT). QiT has been assessing hospitality and tourism properties to set and improve industry standards across the UK for over 15 years, with Visit Isle of Man having worked with the assessor for over 13 years.
The QiT accreditation involves an independent third party assessment, which is subsequently performed annually and grades a business as safe and compliant based on a number of strict factors, rather than personal opinion. Assessment criteria includes cleaning protocols and compliance, public safety measures and staff training, ensuring the accreditation framework remains robust and relevant to provide increased consumer confidence.
At Island Escapes we are proud to have robust procedures in place relating to cleanliness, our housekeeping partner Island Cottage Care always work closely with us to ensure our stringent standards are met at our fully managed properties, and supported us through the accreditation process.
John Keggin, Owner of Island Escapes, commented:
‘At Island Escapes we recognise the importance of a sparkling clean holiday home, and it was a pleasure to be asked to pilot the new Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 award on the Isle of Man. The assessment process was straight forward and the virtual assessment, hassle free. Having the award will give Island Escapes that much sought after ‘book with confidence’ message that visitors will be looking for in the post-COVID era and it provides me with the comfort that the properties in our portfolio are meeting the required standards.’
Deborah Heather, Director, Quality In Tourism commented:
‘Since the Accreditation was relaunched across the UK to include COVID-19 protocols, QiT has accredited over 10,000 businesses. The Scheme was recently featured in Which? Magazine, who described it as “robust” in comparison to the “box ticking” alternatives, which can damage consumer trust.
‘Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 has been adopted by businesses across the UK in Europe, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man has always been a market leader in the area of compliance, a factor which has now never been so important to consumers when making buying decisions; with safety and trust predicted to be the most important criteria influencing consumers going forward.’
QiT will be delivering a series of complimentary training and educational webinars for industry over the coming months. The first in the series, taking place throughout December, will introduce the Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 scheme to various sectors in the industry; exploring the benefits to businesses of obtaining the accreditation and an overview to the accreditation process.
For more information please refer to the official Visit Isle of Man website
