Certification means that you have had an audit against the Travelife Standard and have met all of the criterion.  When that happens your property will be Travelife Certified and you will receive a Travelife Gold Certification.  Click here to learn more about the Travelife certification process.

Your Membership lasts for two years from the date we receive your Membership fee and we call this your ‘Membership Period’.  As soon as you begin your Membership you can access the tools and resources we provide in the Member Zone to help you make improvements and prepare for your audit.  Your certification lasts for two years from the date of your audit provided we have advised you that you are Certified.  We call this your ‘certification date’.  Click here to view our Membership prices, benefits and inclusions.

We only undertake the certifications process with current Members.  If your Membership has lapsed then you will not be able to undergo an audit or become Certified.

Whilst you can still display your certificate, you will be asked to remove the Travelife Gold logo from all of your materials and will have no access to our Membership benefits such as listings on the Travelife Collection website.   We will also notify our tour operator and online travel agent members that you are no longer part of Travelife and will remove you from the Member Status Reports that we send them.

Complete the registration form on the Join Now page and when you get to the payments area select ‘Pay by bank transfer’.  We will send you an invoice to the e-mail address you provided.  The email will contain details of our bank account so that you can process a bank transfer.

We will send you a welcome email confirming your Membership and during the registration process you will create a username and password for your property so that you can access the Member Zone.  You will also be added to our Member mailing list so we can send you e-mail updates containing news, tips and advice about accommodation sustainability.

You can cancel your Membership at any time by letting us know at info@travelife.org however, your Membership Fee is non-refundable.  Click here to view our Membership Terms & Conditions that you will need to agree to before you pay your Membership Fee.

Our Member Support Team will get in touch about three months after you join to help you arrange your audit but you can contact them earlier or later if you wish by e-mailing info@travelife.org.  We strongly recommend that your audit is carried out between three and six months after joining, however they can be completed at any time during your Membership Period.

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.  We begin the audit allocation process three months in advance so the more notice you can give us the better.

Once an auditor has been allocated 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 wages that the auditor incurs.  Click here to view our Membership Terms & Conditions that explain Travelife and Member obligations for audits.

It is important that our Approved Auditors remain independent, objective and impartial so they must abide to a strict Code of Conduct and sign our  Anti-Corruption and Bribery Policy.  In order to maintain this independence we do not allow our Members to choose their auditors or vice-versa.  We ask our Auditors to declare any connection they have with our Members and will not allocate an Auditor to a property that they have any relationship with, past or present.

Your auditor will give you an estimate on this when you both agree on a date and time.  Typically they take one full day, less for smaller properties with less facilities and longer for very large or complex ones.  This is why Travelife charge different Membership Fees for different sized properties.  When you join Travelife you will be find more information about how to prepare for an audit in the Member Zone.

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.  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.  When you join Travelife you will be find more information about how to prepare for an audit in the Member Zone.

After your audit, the auditor will produce a detailed report that explains what evidence they found that you complied (or did not comply) with each criterion in the Travelife Standard.  They submit this report to us and it undergoes a detailed quality check by our Certifications, Compliance & Quality Control Team.  Whilst we try to complete this process as quickly as possible, accuracy is important and during peak periods it can take up to 28-days, at which point your Audit Report will be available for you to view in your secure area of the Travelife Technical Zone.  There are three possible outcomes following your audit:

1. If you complied with all of the criterion in the Travelife Standard you will be advised that you are Travelife Certified and receive your Travelife Gold Certificate.
2. If you have less than 40 areas that need improving, then the Certifications Team will let you know what they are and what further evidence you need to provide in order to comply with each one.  You must start these improvements within one-month and complete all of them within six-months in order to achieve Travelife Gold Certification.
3. If you have more than 40 improvements to make or you do not begin the improvement process within one-month or you do not complete the improvement process within six-months, you will not be Certified and will need to repeat the certification process then undertake another audit at your own cost.

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.

Our friendly team are here to help and include native speakers of English, Spanish, German, French and Dutch.  You can email them at info@travelife.org or call our London office on +44(0) 20 3693 0160.  We apologise if the staff member speaking your preferred language is not immediately available when you get in touch.