|
 | |
Introduction
Will BTA only promote an establishment if it belongs to one of the tourist boards’ accommodation schemes?
What about accommodation businesses that are not on BTA's list?
What if there is not a tourist board minimum standard for the type of accommodation business that I run?
Will you be reviewing your list on a regular basis?
How will this affect BTA’s ability to work with ‘Partner Organisations’ and Tour Operators?
Introduction
For many years, only those accommodation establishments that ‘offered the requisite guarantee of quality’ have been eligible for promotion by the British Tourist Authority (BTA).
The Board of the BTA has now agreed that ‘requisite guarantee of quality’ will normally be taken to mean that an establishment meets the minimum standards required by the accommodation schemes operated by the English Tourism Council, VisitScotland and the Wales Tourist Board (the national tourist boards of Great Britain) and, in England (where ETC and the motoring associations have harmonised their inspection schemes), by the AA and RAC.
Back to top
Does this mean that BTA will only promote an establishment if it belongs to one of the tourist boards’ accommodation schemes?
No. BTA is simply using the national tourist boards’ minimum standards as a benchmark. An establishment does not need to participate in one of these schemes to be eligible for promotion by BTA. However, it does need to be able to demonstrate that it meets these basic standards through membership of an extremely wide range of inspection schemes, hotel groups, self-catering and other agencies, marketing consortia that BTA is confident meet the minimum standards.
Approved for Promotion Accommodation List
Exceptionally, BTA’s Chief Executive has been authorised by the Board to approve the inclusion in the list of an accommodation provider that does not meet the minimum standards of its national tourist board but only if the accommodation is known by BTA to be of extremely good quality and would otherwise be ineligible for inclusion.
Back to top
What about accommodation businesses that are not in a scheme, group or consortia, etc on BTA’s list?
If an accommodation business has chosen not to be inspected or to join one of the recognised marketing consortia, BTA will have no practical means of satisfying itself that the minimum standards are met and the establishment will not as a rule be eligible for active promotion by BTA. (BTA does not have the resources to visit individual establishments.)
However, if the establishment believes that it meets the minimum standards of its national tourist board, it can register for inclusion in a specially created section of BTA’s VisitBritain website but will not be eligible to participate in any other promotional activity offered by BTA.
BTA will display on the VisitBritain website the minimum standards applicable to each national tourist board scheme. If an establishment believes that it meets the relevant standards it can register by emailing its details (name, address, telephone and fax number, email address, website address) to BTA at accommodation@bta.org.uk. Once registered, the establishment will be entitled to a free listing of the above address details on the VisitBritain site for a maximum of two years and will be able to up-date its listing during that time. However, in order to remain on the site after the first twelve months it will have to re-register so that we can ensure that the data does not become out of date. Additionally, BTA reserves the right at its sole discretion to remove a listing at any time if we have reasonable reason to doubt the quality of the establishment.
If an establishment wishes to continue to be promoted by BTA after two years have elapsed, it will need to have joined one of the inspection schemes or marketing consortia that will entitle it to use BTA’s full range of promotional opportunities.
Back to top
What if there is not a tourist board minimum standard for the type of accommodation business that I run?
There are tourist board inspection schemes for serviced, self-catering, caravan and camping parks, holiday parks, campus and hostel accommodation and self-hire boats on inland waterways.
BTA will continue to promote accommodation types for which there are no national tourist board minimum standards (eg, aparthotels, hotel boats and homestay accommodation) providing that BTA has no reason to believe they do not provide acceptable quality and standards (for example from customer complaints). However, BTA will make it clear as appropriate that no assurances can be given about the quality of such accommodation.
Will you be reviewing your list on a regular basis?
Yes.
Back to top
How will this affect BTA’s ability to work with ‘Partner Organisations’ and Tour Operators?
If company’s main business is accommodation provision or promotion, BTA will only be able to work with it if the business appears on the list.
In cases where accomodation promotion is secondary to the main business – as is the case with airlines and ferry operators - and the accommodation does not meet one of the criteria on the list, then BTA will expect to be satisfied that the accommodation does in fact meet or exceed the relevant minimum standards.
Exceptionally, BTA may decide, at its discretion, to promote products where it is not so satisfied, but we will couple it with a disclaimer that no assurances can be given about the quality of the accommodation.
Back to top
Back
to Accommodation Search
| |
|
