The Serviced Apartment/Accommodation Forum for Assessment
and Accreditation (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 regardless of size, as well as the development
of a ‘lite’ assessment programme for the industry.
According to the forum, the move supports local, regional
and global accreditors in their goal of ensuring all operators can access education
and professional standards and support. It also meets the desire of the wider industry,
including agents, corporates and bookers, for safe and secure, clean and legal
assessed and accredited accommodation globally, SAFFAA said.
The ‘lite’ assessment programme will establish a minimum
standard and help set a “benchmark of entry” for operators, it added.
Jo Layton, director of CAP Worldwide, who was instrumental
in establishing 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.”