The Certification Process

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Step 1

Appoint a Travelife Coordinator and involve other staff

You have the best chance of success if one person takes responsibility for coordinating Travelife Certification activities. They should also act as the main point of contact with Travelife.

Properties that show the most success with sustainability also involve staff from human resources, engineering, food and beverage, housekeeping, sales and front office. However, there is no reason why you cannot involve other departments too.

Step 2

Review the Travelife Certification Requirements

This is the full list of requirements you will need to comply with in order to be Travelife Certified. It is the same list of requirements that auditors will use to assess compliance. When you pay your certification fee you will have access to a special version that contains guidance notes as well as links to our online guidance pages where you can access examples, templates and related e-learning. In the meantime, you can view the short version here.

Step 3

Create and implement an action plan detailing any changes you need to make

Once you have identified any requirements you do not comply with you should create an action plan that details how you will ensure that these have been carried out before the inspection audit. Your plan could be a simple list of actions you need to take, with each one being assigned to an individual who is responsible for completing the action before a specific deadline. We recommend you have a system in place to make sure you stay on track with the plan, such as a weekly meeting or setting up a calendar reminder.

Step 4

Schedule your inspection audit

We begin the process of assigning auditors to new properties about 3 months after they start working with us.

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.

Step 5

Prepare for your inspection audit

It is very important to spend time properly preparing for your inspection audit. At Travelife we continually see a direct link between the amount of time a property puts in to preparation and having both a successful and useful audit. When a property fails their audit, in almost all cases the auditor tells us that the staff were not prepared and had not made use of the guides, tools, templates and e-learning we have provided on the customer support website.

You will have access to these once you have paid and created your Evergeen account.

Step 6

The inspection audit

When an auditor is assigned to your property, Travelife will put you in touch with them so they can confirm details such as the audit date and their arrival time.

After an opening meeting the auditor will ask to see various documents and you must make sure they can access all parts of the premises, including some guest rooms. They will also ask to speak to various staff, sometimes requiring that they interview staff in private.

At the end of the audit there will be a closing meeting where you will be given some feedback but the auditor cannot tell you if you are certified as that decision will be made by Travelife (see Step 7).

Step 7

Audit outcomes (certification decisions)

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.

Step 8

Travelife Certified

When a property achieves Travelife Certification they are given a certificate and logo they can display. They are also included in the reports we provide to travel companies who use this information to identify which properties in their own portfolio have a certification.

We also list these properties on our consumer website, www.staybetterplaces.com so that travellers and any other interested party can find Travelife Certified properties.

The certification is valid for 2 years from the audit date but it is subject to the annual certification check-up (see Step 9).

Step 9

Maintaining your certification

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

Approximately 1 year after each inspection audit it will be necessary for your 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 your property to remind them that the certification check-up is due and to explain the process. If you fail your certification check-up audit, your certification will be withdrawn and you will need to begin the recertification process again.