European Hospitality Quality

The satisfaction of the guests is key for the success of any hospitality enterprise. Therefore high quality of services should be always be the prior objective. The German Hotel Association (IHA) is committed to help increasing the transparency and comparability of existing national/regional quality management schemes, which deal with tourism establishments.

Therefore the German Hotel Association (IHA)  is supporting the European Hospitality Quality scheme established by HOTREC, which is an umbrella quality scheme bringing together the various national/regional quality schemes. It is the response of our European umbrella association HOTREC to the recent call for quality charters, enshrined in the Directive on services.

So far three quality schemes have already been accredited under the EHQ scheme: 

Quality Programme of Swiss Tourism (Qualitäts-Programm des Schweizer Tourismus) Hungarian Tourism Quality Award (Magyar Turizmus Minőségi Díj) ServiceQuality Germany (ServiceQualität Deutschland)

 

The EHQ includes three levels (Q’, Q’’, Q’’’) with criteria setting practical requirements for proper quality management.

	Basic level of quality: Guest oriented processes, One quality-coordinator per establishment, Internal/self-assessment of the establishment, Systematic complaint management, Action plan with relevant measures at least once a year Limited duration of Q-assessment.
	Second level of quality: Criteria of basic level of quality and additionally Revision of the action plan on the basis of - Guest surveys and - Written report of mystery check, Employees’ involvement.
	Total Quality Management (TOM): Implemented and documented by System equivalent to ISO 9001:2000 certificate or, EFQM certificate (≥ 300 points).