Best Western GB adopts independent gold standard for safety and cleanliness

Best Western GB has partnered with Quality in Tourism (QT) to adopt a new gold standard for anti-Covid-19 across all its 297 hotels by the start of July, which it says will make them "the safest hotels in Great Britain" when they reopen to the public.

The new kitemark for safety and cleanliness will see Best Western hotels "overlay new standards" on top of the brand's cleaning requirements and processes and involves "comprehensive risk assessments of every area of the property".

The new gold standard requires that Best Western hotels be independently audited by QT-trained assessors to enable them to be able to display a new kitemark or accreditation.

Rob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Great Britain, said: "We believe we have taken the ultimate step for the safety of our staff and guests. The new kitemark provides reassurance to the public that we have the highest standards of safety in our hotels for anti-Covid cleanliness in the whole of hospitality, because it is independently audited and signed off. Not marked by Best Western. That was important to us."

Paterson went on to say that he believed the scheme could also help to restart the British economy quickly, safely and legally and "with the confidence of the consumer" by working with the government and QT to roll out the new kitemark "more widely to other businesses".

Deborah Heather, founder of M-Assessments, which manages the QT scheme, said that the kitemark will be a "guarantee to the public that Best Western hotels are the safest in Great Britain".

She confirmed they were in the process of rolling out the scheme as a solution in Europe and the US to "provide an internationally recognised kitemark of confidence that consumers can trust on their travels".

Last week Best Western GB, which was the first group in the UK to offer its empty hotels to the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak, announced a record deal with Hallmark Hotels.