First-rate service

Q-accreditation for all Welcome hotels across Germany

During official celebrations held at the Welcome Hotel Frankfurt on 28^th April ServiceQualität Deutschland bestowed level 1 Q-accreditation on all Welcome Hotels. The presentations were made by Ralf Schell, CEO Bayern Touristik GmbH and Mandy Hermann, Head of ServiceQ Deutschland. Elke Stahlmecke, Welcome Hotels Authorized Officer and Head of Group Quality Control who is responsible for the instigation of the group’s ServiceQ accreditation application invited the directors and heads of quality control from each of the group’s 17 hotels as well as numerous representatives of ServiceQualität Deutschland to a celebration held at the newly opened Welcome Hotel Frankfurt. This is yet a further step in an ongoing in-house quality management strategy that benefits guests in all Welcome Hotels.

Q-accreditation – our quality pledge for all our guests

This push to optimise quality management all got underway on 17^th November 2010 with a one-and-a-half day conference during which those responsible for quality control from each of the hotels were trained as Q-coaches. After careful market research Welcome Hotels decided to implement the ServiceQualität Deutschland strategy right across the group and now the Welcome group and ServiceQualität Deutschland are focusing on improving customer satisfaction and optimising the level of service offered by all.  

In order to achieve level one certification of the three-tier ServiceQ system three separate elements have to be evaluated: quality components, service chains and internal complaint management. Finally, the Q-coaches together with their hotel team need to identify a plan of at least eight measures to improve the level of service in their hotel that are then sent to the ServiceQualität Deutschland for appraisal. Following approval of all four components Welcome Hotels was officially awarded level-one Q-accreditation. "We are delighted with this award“, says Elke Stahlmecke. “Accreditation shows just how intensive the last few months of preparation have been and how successfully we have been able to continue this process of structuring and implementing quality control in all our group hotels so that we can continue to improve the service we offer our guests right across the group.” Following successful level-one accreditation the plan is to continue to internalize these quality optimizing measures that have been designed according to ServiceQ guidelines with the aim of achieving level-two Q-accreditation in year two. 

Welcome Hotels:

The Welcome Hotel group based in the Sauerland town of Warstein has been a successful component of Germany’s hotel industry since 1998. In total the group has seventeen 3 and 4+ star hotels in 14 locations across Germany. Headed up by Mario Pick and Carsten Kritz some 1,000 employees work tirelessly day-to-day to provide each and every guest with a true "Welcome" experience.

ServiceQualität Deutschland:

The "Q" is the trademark of Servicequalität in Germany. Some 2,700 hotels across the country have now fulfilled all criteria for Q-accreditation displaying publically their commitment to providing a quality service. Using the training and quality accreditation programme companies are able to analyse the level of service they are offering from the customer’s perspective in order to optimize internal processes in a sustainable and ongoing manner. This increases customer loyalty and provides an edge over market competitors.