Certification means that you have had an audit against the Travelife Certification Requirements and are compliant with all of the ones that apply to your property. When that happens your property will be Travelife Certified.  Click here to learn more about the Travelife certification process.

Your certification lasts for two years from the date of your inspection audit provided we have advised you that you are Certified.  We call this your ‘certification date’. 

As described in the Accommodation Certification Agreement, each property must maintain compliance with the Travelife Certification Requirements at all times. The Agreement also describes the process Travelife follows if we find a property is no longer compliant with one or more of the requirements before their certification expires.

Approximately 1 year after each inspection audit it will be necessary for each property to undergo a remote certification check-up audit. In most cases, the same auditor that carried out the inspection audit will also be assigned to work on the remote audit.

This is a simple process that involves uploading information (e.g. documents, filling out forms) to a special area of Evergreen that you can access via your property’s Evergreen dashboard. Please note that this new area of Evergreen will not be available until 2025 when Travelife expects the first remote check-up audits to take place. Travelife will email the main contact person they have on file for the property to remind them that the certification check-up is due and to explain the process. If a property fails their certification check-up audit, their certification will be withdrawn and they will need to begin the recertification process again.

We do not recognise you as Travelife Certified if your recertification fee is outstanding.  You must remove the Travelife Certification logo from all places where you use it and remove any other references to being Travelife Certified.

We will remove your listing from www.staybetterplaces.com and show you as “Not Certified” on the reports we share with tour operators and OTAs. 

Once you pay your recertification fee, we will reinstate your certification.

We will send you a welcome email and, if you do not already have one, invite you to set up an Evergreen login (our certification system).

We will also send you a formal invoice showing receipt of your payment.

You can cancel  at any time by letting us know at info@travelife.org however, any fee you have paid is non-refundable.  Click here to view the terms  you will need to agree to before you pay your fee.

We begin the process of assigning auditors to new properties about 3 months after they start working with us. For recertifying property, we begin assigning auditors about 6 months before their certification is due to expire.

You can also request an audit at any time by completing the Audit Request Form that can be accessed from Evergreen.

You must have your inspection audit within one year of paying the Certification Fee, otherwise you will have to pay for another one.

We will do our best to accommodate special requests for dates but are not able to make any guarantees as it will depend on the availability of auditors and their travel schedules.  

Once an auditor has been assigned to you, it will be up to you and the auditor to arrange a date and time that suits you both.  If you cancel or change a confirmed audit date within 30-days of the Auditor’s scheduled arrival, you may be charged up to €1,500 to cover any travel cancellation fees and lost income that the auditor incurs.  

That depends on the size and complexity of your property, as well as how long ago you had your last inspection audit. 

If you have never had a Travelife audit, or the most recent one took place more than 3 years ago, the audit will most likely take 2 days. Very small properties may only take one day.

If you are having a recertification audit, or your last inspection audit was within the last 3 years, the audit will most likely take one full day. Very small properties may only take half a day.

Your auditor will let you know exactly who needs to be available and when, but typically you will need to make the person who is coordinating Travelife Certification available for the entire audit along with a senior manager.  You can also expect the Auditor to want to speak to various other department heads and to conduct private interviews with at least three different staff of their choosing.  

After each audit, auditors write a report for Travelife detailing their findings against each requirement and make a recommendation about whether a property was compliant or non-compliant. Specially trained Travelife staff review the auditor’s report and decide whether they feel that sufficient evidence has been found for each requirement, and whether or not they agree with the auditor’s recommendations. This entire process is known as a quality check and it can take up to 30 days after an audit has been carried out for the process to be fully completed.

Once the audit report is ready you will be notified via e-mail and you can view it in the property’s Evergreen profile. There are 3 possible certification decisions that we have described below.

The property is Travelife Certified: This means that we found evidence that the property has complied with all the Travelife Certification Requirements. The certification is valid for 2 years subject to the annual certification check-up audit that we explain later in this guidance.

Post-audit improvements are needed: This means that the property did not comply with between 1 and 40 of the Travelife Certification Requirements. Please note that most properties have at least a few improvements to make after their audit, so it is nothing to be concerned about.

An improvements report will be available in the property’s Evergreen profile that explains exactly which requirements were not met and what needs to be done to show compliance. Evergreen should be used to submit evidence that these improvements have been made.

All improvements must be completed within 6 months of the inspection audit date otherwise the property will not achieve certification and will need to arrange for another inspection audit at an additional cost.

The property is not certified: This means that the property did not comply with more than 40 of the Travelife Certification Requirements. The audit report will be available in the property’s Evergreen profile that explains exactly which requirements were not met. If you wish to continue the certification process with this property, another audit will need to be scheduled at an additional cost.  Please note that it is very rare for this to happen if the property used our tools and resources to prepare for their audit. Less than 5% of all Travelife audits result in this outcome.

The Travelife Policy and Procedure for Complaints and Appeals details the way that you can appeal a decision that has been made about your certification or make a complaint about an auditor or our service. Click here to view the complaints and appeals procedure.  Alternatively, you can click here to give us informal feedback about any aspect of our business.

You can email any other questions to our customer support team at info@travelife.org or click here to complete our online contact form.