Twenty-five ABTA Travelife auditors come together from across the globe for a four-day training session last week at ABTA’s offices in central London.
It was the first time that Travelife has gathered all its global team of independently contracted auditors in one place.
Travelife is a global accommodation sustainability certification body. When hotels and accommodation providers apply to be Travelife verified, they are assessed by the Travelife auditors to see if they meet the scheme’s strict set of requirements.
To ensure consistency and high standards across all audits, Travelife auditors undertake regular update training as part of a wider audit quality control programme. This latest training was the first time Travelife had gathered all auditors in one place and focused on updating general auditing skills along with assessing compliance against each of the Travelife requirements that accommodation providers must meet in order to be Travelife Certified.
The Travelife requirements covers a range of important sustainability areas including emissions, biodiversity, human rights, fair labour, child safeguarding and animal welfare.
Once assessed as having met 100% of the requirements, the property is given Travelife Certification, which means holidaymakers and travel agents are able to recognise that the property has a sustainable travel credential. This is valid for two years and will only be extended on the successful completion of another audit.
There are currently almost 1,000 properties with a Travelife Certification, including everything from small boutique eco-hotels to large all-inclusive properties.
Carolyn Wincer, Managing Director of Travelife said “Collectively our global community of auditors have carried out thousands of audits at range of different accommodation types around the world. Getting them together last week resulted in inspiring exchanges of experiences, challenges and best practices that everyone benefitted from, and that we can pass onto hotels.
“Travelife Certification demands a high standard from accommodation providers so it’s important auditors have an ongoing training programme to ensure consistency across Travelife accommodation.”
