Webinar: Trust, Bookings & Accreditation for self-catering homes

Webinar: Trust, Bookings & Accreditation

The latest changes in the UK accreditation schemes have left a gap. 

Guests are actively seeking reassurance before they book - especially in a competitive and evolving market.

Holiday home managers want accreditation to visibly demonstrate trust, quality, and professionalism, helping them stand out, attract more bookings, and reassure guests in an increasingly competitive and uncertain market.

That’s why we’re inviting you to watch the replay of our webinar with Natalie Clayton of AA Guest Ready and Sadie Rowell of the AA Hospitality Services. 

Links from the event

• AA video introduction to Visitor Ready (Links to Youtube)

The AA and Bookster explore how AA accreditation can help you:
✅ Stand out with verified credentials
✅ Reassure guests with a symbol of trust
✅ Improve quality with actionable insights
✅ Tap into digital tools and direct booking benefits.

The AA schemes are simplified, accessible, and fit for purpose - from fully star-rated options to a free digital 'Visitor Ready' accreditation.

This webinar is your opportunity to understand the evolving landscape and take control of your property's reputation.

💬 Questions? Reach us at help@booksterhq.com

Don’t let outdated schemes hold you back. Future-proof your hospitality business.

Transcript: 

Kelly, Bookster:
So today's session is in response to some changes that are happening in some of the national grading schemes in the UK.

And the plan for today is really just to look at some of the options that you have to be able to demonstrate the quality of your home, help you build trust with your guests, and, and really just attract more bookings using these tools.

So I've invited along today, our special guests, Natalie and Sadie.

Natalie, would you like to introduce yourself first?

Natalie, AA:
Yeah, sure. Hi everyone. Thanks for joining.  My name's Natalie Clayton. I've been with the AA Hospitality Services now going on three years, and I'm head of the Visitor Ready Accreditation, which is a brand new accreditation.

It was just recently launched, which I will explain a little bit further on in the webinar.

Sadie, AA
Hi. Hi everyone. My name's Sadie Rowell. I'm head of sales for the AA and look after quality scheme memberships and accreditation.

Like Natalie, I've been in the business with the AA, heading into my third year and my background being,  hospitality sales within the industry of hotels and accommodation.

Kelly, Bookster:
Amazing. Thank you.

And if I forget to say at the end, thank you so much for taking the time today to come along.
I really appreciate it. 

If you are new to Bookster,  we are a marketing software, which is specializing in attracting bookings for holiday rentals.

And, we're all backed up with our own in-house property management software and that really is designed to help you manage your bookings and help support your guests.

So, obviously working with the AA today, this really fits into the idea of being able to market your product, market your property as a really high quality, just perfect for guests ready for guests, safe for guests, and we'll look at how you can do that as well later on.

So today's session, we'll look at some tools from the AA, but if you would like some more information about Bookster, which I'm not gonna talk about for the rest of this session, please do feel free to get in touch on our details at the end. 

So first I'm going to pass over to Sadie.

Sadie, AA: 
Good, good afternoon everyone, and thank you so much for allowing both myself and Natalie, the opportunity of meeting with you all and sharing details of our AA levels of accreditation.

My name is Sadie, as I said, and I'm head of sales and look after quality assessment, membership and accreditation with the AA.

I'm going to give you an overview of the quality schemes and Natalie will provide you with an insight to our free digital online accreditation visitor Ready. 

Early last year, we launched scheme modernization where we now offer something for everyone with our three clear levels of accreditation.

Next slide, please. 

We have been recognizing excellence and quality across hospitality since 1908, so for 117 years. We started the Star Rating Scheme back in 1912. A leading UK accreditation organization, the AA is one of the most trusted brands in the UK, providing authentic, unbiased assessment through a guest lens, testing every level of service, and providing a full verbal debrief and written report.

A superb management tool enabling you to use for team and individual KPIs. We own and operate AA accreditation schemes across the whole of the UK, and our individual style is to work in collaboration with our industry trade bodies, both local and regional tourism, providing you with a critical friend to help raise standards and celebrate those successes.

We cannot guarantee an increase in revenue when you join our membership. However, we can guarantee qualified support from our professional inspectors guiding you and your team providing the best possible guest experience.

Next slide, please. So, scheme, modernization, and our three levels of accreditation enable you to select the right membership for your business.

These are quality star rated recalibrated from three to five stars, removing one to two stars, quality assessed where no stars are rewarded, but a full inspection still takes place to ensure minimum quality standards are met.

And finally, Visitor Ready, which my colleague Natalie, will walk you through later, a completely free online digital accreditation demonstrating that your business is safe and compliant to welcome visitors and guests.

The criteria to simplify and modernize our approach with an ever-changing industry needed to change and move with you, creating these simple levels of accreditation, which are easy to understand, accessible for all, and fit for purpose.

When simplifying our schemes, we recognize the need to revise our quality standards. These are our core benchmark of how we measure quality and enable you to secure your desired star rating measurement in context driven by your market needs, assessing your business on what you offer your guests and not what you don't.

Analyzing physical quality and quality of the guest experience is of equal importance and relevance.

This is a huge leap for us and one that was truly welcomed across our 10,000 members.

Next slide please. So our paid memberships are quality star rated and recalibrated, as mentioned, three to five stars, three stars becoming the new minimum requirement at each level.

This involves an inspection, testing all levels of service resulting in a star rating from three to five If the criteria are met.

When you apply to join the scheme, you'll be visited and rated by a trained professional who will assess seven key areas of your business.

These are bedrooms, bathrooms, cleanliness, public areas, kitchens, exterior and management efficiency, where additional facilities are provided by the IEA spa. These will also be assessed.

We then have quality assessed, giving you the option to be fully inspected again, having all levels of service tested, but without a star rating created for those accommodation providers that did not have a desire for stars, but still value a full inspection discussion and guidance whilst the opportunity to demonstrate minimum quality standards are met, but no star rating is awarded.

The quality standards that I refer to are agreed by the UK tourist authorities and are the basis for the inspections that take place your benchmark to quality.

Each of these memberships will also provide you with your own business profiles listed on our RatedTrips.com website where all inspected members are listed, providing a filing cabinet of quality where guests can review images and inspection feedback and allow them to click straight through to your establishment to make an inquiry or visit your website.

Next slide, please.

The benefits recognition from one of the most trusted brands in the UK inspections are anonymous, independent, authentic, trusted and verified benchmarking quality, and helping raise those standards confidential feedback with actionable insights to improve your guest experience, establish pages on our AA RatedTrips.com site, direct links through to your establishment page, to your own booking page on your own site, a quarterly membership magazine, giving you up-to-date tips and regional updates across the industry.

We then give you access to exclusive partner discounts and well-known hospitality providers, including Sealy beds, clockwork marketing, tailors of Harrogate, Sky, raw EV charging, and many, many more personal services from our trained Inspectorate and customer support team. And we also have offered bespoke training consultancy.

So without further ado, I'm now gonna hand over to Natalie,  who is our partnership and project lead for Visitor Ready. Next slide. 

Natalie, AA:
Thank you very much again.  I'm Natalie, I'm head of the Visitor Ready, which is the brand new accreditation, which has just been introduced as part of the three levels as Sadie has just gone through.

So I'm just going to briefly explain what,  what it entails and some of the benefits for your business.

So, I'm very fortunate to be,  you know, have been part of this since its inception. There were two years in development for this specific accreditation scheme, but, since launch, February last year, we've had very impressive uptake and,  looking at trying to widen this across the industry and with all different businesses as well within hospitality.

So, it is accessible to everybody in the industry. So maybe traditionally the AA was mainly focused on accommodation and restaurants. We are now widening that realm into the different cohorts of eat, stay, and sleep. So, oh, sorry, visit, stay, and eat.

So we are now starting to encompass a lot of other establishments, which could be all attractions. Some museums, galleries, theme parks,  golf courses,  and soft plays.

I mean there, it's kind of endless, with whom the scheme can accommodate. It is a completely free digital accreditation, so there are no barriers to entry that was obviously done very purposefully to try and include as many different establishments as possible.

This is to encourage more uptake so we can promote safety and compliance within the industry, which is raising the standards, the minimum standards. It is an online process, so it is completely online. There are no physical assessors or inspectors that come to your establishment. That would obviously be covered in the quality, quality assessed and quality schemes, which are higher levels.

It is a very quick and easy process to follow. So once you go online, it's on www.Visitor Ready.com.

There would be simple steps that you would complete or follow and it wouldn't take you if you've got all your documentation in place.

And I'll go through which documentations are important.

It should not take you more than 20 minutes to complete.

Obviously, being a, a product of the AA, we are,  you know, encompasses trust.

This specific accreditation needed to be robust and credible.

So in order to do that, we have to request certain criteria that are legal, that are legal requirements within the industry, but obviously not entail too much so that it's too onerous on the, on the user as well. So there should be a nice fine balance there.

It is also credible in the sense that it is not a self-certification.

It's not something once you've completed, you automatically approved. It is verified by our team of verifiers.

We receive your application, we go through the specific documents that have been uploaded and all the information and criteria that was sent.

We obviously can check that information and the documents are valid and legible, and some other criteria as well.

You, part of the accreditation, provides you with a secure digital wallet.

So once you've uploaded your documentation, you can act that will be stored in a very safe digital wallet with your own login details.

Part of that is you'll also receive automatic reminders when those documentations are up for renewal, which a lot of businesses find extremely valuable.

We also endeavor to send information when legislation changes.

So if there's legislation updates, if the Food Standards Agency Sunny decides to incorporate something different, we can obviously communicate that information and our program can,  we have the ability to sort of change our program, to incorporate any new legislation if that is required as well.

And the idea is that the Visitor Ready badge is going to be the new consumer mark for, I mean, sorry, the trust mark for consumer confidence.

So once your establishment is verified and successful, you'll receive your badge, which you can obviously then display, which shows consumers that you have, you've passed the criteria. Next slide, please, Kelly.

This is what the digital badge, page or credential page actually looks like.

So once you have verified, you'll receive a digital badge with a unique QR code.

The reason for that is because obviously this is a baseline compliance accreditation, so you are either in a position where you're compliant or you're not compliant depending on your,  on your documentation.

So if your business, gas safety, for instance, if, if your business applies gas, if that is, if that documentation has expired and you have not uploaded a new updated document in time, that page when clicked on would say not valid or would say expired.

So, it's obviously important to try and keep your compliance and also for other businesses that sign up that they are continuously compliant with legislation, this is your own badge that you can also then share across your marketing channels.

Next slide please. The documentation I wanted to go through that you would need as part of the application process is public liability if you employ staff, it is employers liability,  then your fire risk assessment, which is, which is obviously required for every establishment.

And, if you supply gas, you would have a gas safety mark as well.

There would be a few key requirements you would need to also upload.

Oh, I mean, sorry, agree to which, is your GDPR Health and Safety, the other basic legislation that's required and then there is also a scheme charter that just confirms that you put the customer first,  and, and you, you would adhere to any other important information around that.

I've just seen the question on the side, so I'm gonna just answer that while I'm in the middle of this 'cause,  Jane says she's in Scotland and they have to adhere to the SDL registration scheme. 
And, we are actually in the process of having a conversation with the SDA and, and, and hopefully any businesses that have already got the license and, and, and you've got your license number, you would, you would hopefully be able to apply for visitors already a lot quicker because that information is already, is already there and we know that you've adhered to all of the documentation that I've just mentioned in this,  accreditation so that is, that is a conversation that is still being had, but,  Visitor Ready is not a government legislation, it is not part of government.

We are an independent organization and it is a stepping stone to quality and obviously also,  a helpful tool for you to promote your, your safe, you know, your safe and legal and which I know the license registration does as well.

Anyway, okay, can you move on to the next slide please, Kelly?

These are just a couple of testimonials we've had with some businesses.  We also, it's probably also a good time to also mention if you do have a, if you are a property that has multiple establishments or if you're an establishment that has multiple properties, excuse me we do also offer a white glove service where, you are welcome to drop me an email or one of my team members and we would also be able to help and assist get as, get your properties loaded to try and take a lot of that admin burden off of you.

We also, alternatively, I mean, sorry, on top of that, we have a business partner status. So once you've received a high percentage of compliance within your property portfolio, you would then receive a business partner status, which you can then promote onto your website as well.

So it's quite a nice free tool as well, promoting your business on the right hand side, you'll see, see at a testimonial is one of our customers that have put their digital code badge onto their website.

So it's just an idea of how to use the logo.

Next slide please. 

This is a digital package option, so the free badge and accreditation is, is, you know, it remains as long as you want it,  there is no catch there if you would like to upgrade to a digital package.

This will involve your establishment being listed on the rater trips website that Sadie mentioned earlier.

So all the other qualities established in the UK are listed for a month or a hundred pounds a year.

You could have a page on that on the Rated Trips website, with direct referrals to your site. So that's just an added bonus. It's not, it's not compulsory. Next slide, please.

This is just a few of our industry supporters at the time of coming up with the accreditation.

We had a quality advisory board where a lot of these businesses were involved.

So it's very much of a collaborative effort where a lot of people from the industry, a lot of industry bodies,  sort of gave feedback and are very much supportive of the Visitor Ready scheme.

And, it is a force for good. My main focus is collaboration, it's relationship building.

So we do everything with partners, and, and our supporters and our boards and, and similarly why we are here today with Kelly.

We like to, to help all the industry bodies and everybody that's trying to do force for good. So, that is pretty much our ethos. Next slide, please, Kelly.

Sadie, AA: 
So just to summarize the rule, you've been recognizing excellence for A years.

Trusted, authentic and verified AA quality schemes will enable you to raise standards with our expert guidance, achieve the very best you can and celebrate success with your teams.

We can focus on the quality of what you offer, remember, and not what you don't.

Offering three clear levels of accreditation, which are star rated, quality assessed, and of course Visitor Ready.

We work with and are supported by industry, including as previously mentioned, UK Hospitality Master in Holders Hos Institute, hospitality, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts.

And we're here to help and raise those standards and help celebrate your successes.

So I hope you found that incredibly useful and thank you so much for your time.

Over to questions I guess. Now.

Kelly, Bookster:
I actually have a question first, if you don't mind me asking.

Sadie: 
No, you go. 

Kelly, Bookster:
Actually, I have a couple. The first question was really thinking following on from Natalie's slide about putting the QR code onto a website. I was wondering where you would recommend for each of the three levels of accreditation where property managers could promote that they have this level of accreditation.

Natalie: 
From from the Visitor Ready side of things. Obviously because the badge is digital,  there is no printed badge.

It's not something you'll put on your door because as I've mentioned before, it is, it is,  it is a compliance accreditation.

So the documentation is, you know, will expire at different times of the year.

So as long as you keep, maintain your compliance, you will obviously have the accreditation, but it's digital so that it can, the consumer can verify it in, in real time.  so that is something that is designed that you are, you are able to share that among on, on your social channels.

So you can, once you've received the badge, you'd be able to, to directly link it onto your platforms and onto your website.

Kelly, Bookster:
Brilliant. 

Sadie, AA:
And then for the quality membership, very similar, you get your digital badges, which is wonderful to share on socials and really shout about, but you also get a physical copy to display in your properties.  So when your guests arrive, that's one of the first things they see as they walk through the door is that certification, which is, is really special.

Kelly, Bookster:
Excellent. I was also thinking about the rated trips site. So if there is a link that's going to go to the property owners website, that's going to have a good value as well as improve the position of their own website.
So there's an extra benefit there to the property owner to have a direct connection with yourselves. 

Let me just have a look.
So Sarah and Steve Clark, they're asking if it's free, how's it funded?
Interesting question.

Natalie, AA:
Sadie, do you wanna answer? Do you want me to answer 

Sadie, AA: 
Visitor Ready? How's it funded?

Natalie, AA:
Well, I suppose,  one of the,  I it's a,  it's one of the sort of, it's, it's an industry backed,  accreditation.

So in order for the majority of businesses to take ownership of this, it had to have been free.

Otherwise, obviously it was another barrier.

So the idea of it being free was that there would be no barriers to reentry. As mentioned before, it is obviously independently funded, but like any freemium there is an option to upgrade.  There is a hope that businesses would want to be, to have a site on our website.  so we have a better webpage where we have a lot more establishments and not just where to stay and eat, but also where to visit.

So we can build, we can build our reputation pages among all the businesses that are promoted, promote Visitor Ready, and also the AA schemes.

Kelly, Bookster:
Perfect. And I can see,  Sarah and Steve have asked, do you have to have level one Visitor Ready before applying for level two?

Sadie, AA:
No, absolutely not. If you just want to leap to level two and get your page listed on Rated Trips, you are absolutely welcome to do that and you can apply for star rated at any point providing these three clear levels.

It enables you to choose what you want to do when you are ready to do it.  If you want to just commence with a Visitor Ready and that's where you want to stay, you've got no desire to be visited or accredited by a physical being and be quality assessed, then that is perfect for you.
 
If you want that slight enhancement and actually have a visual,  profile picture
and web listing on Rated Trips, then Visitor Ready, digital is, is the right step for you.

And then obviously star rated and quality assessed, if you want to go down the line of quality assessment with an inspector coming to actually physically visit and sit down and spend some time with you.

You're welcome. 

Kelly, Bookster:
Excellent.

So there is a question again, it's just disappearing off my screen here from Jane asking what are the usual costs of the other two schemes, the star rated and the quality assessed?

Sadie, AA: Sorry, I missed that. I was reading something else. 

Kelly, Bookster:
Jane was asking, what, what are the usual costs of the other two schemes?
So the schemes that you are looking after Sadie - Rated quality star rated.

Sadie, AA: 
So for one unit, the price is 155 pounds plus VAT per year.

Kelly, Bookster:
Is that for both, whether it's…

Sadie, AA:That's for both. It's Both Things. Yeah, both the same.

Kelly, Bookster:
Excellent. Okay. One thing that we didn't really touch on, but I know we've spoken about it,  yesterday was why you might not want to have a star rating versus those people who might want to.  

Sadie, AA:
So I mean, some people it's just not part of where they're, they're positioned in the country.
Some people it's just not part of their criteria. they just really want that, that value of that assessment piece without necessarily having a star attached to it. They just really would like to have the whole testing all levels of service and having that quality assessment, still having that wonderful mark,  that AA logo showing that they've been accredited.

But if not for all establishments, these guys will know better than me whether they want stars or not.  We recalibrated and got rid of one and two stars, because no one wants to stay in a one or two star establishment.

So that was removed completely and that's when we moved to three to five.

And for the properties that potentially still were in and around one and two, but didn't want to have that attached to them, quality assessment was a natural progression for them. So it's just removing, it's given more of a freedom of choice really, and it's opened up the floodgates for us in terms of branding as well.

So some of them, in the hotel world for instance, some branded hotels have no desire at all to be star rated. They don't need it, but they have their own in-house marketing and promotion.

However, having a quality assessment is still key because it still celebrates and enables them to benchmark quality,  without a star. I hope that helps. Okay. Okay.

Kelly, Bookster:
Yeah, that's really interesting. Thank you.

Okay, there's a message from Shona.
So Shona looked at the website and did a search on the map, but they couldn't find the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Sky.
And then subsequently she's said, what are your plans to develop the search on maps?

Sadie, AA:
Constant Shona, absolutely constant Rated Trips is still in its infancy. It was only created a couple of years ago.  A bit of a post COVID project really for the, for the digital team.

We wanted to provide something more, you know, this online directory of quality, but we are developing it all the time. I am gonna make a note of that and let the digital team know, if I may, so you couldn't find Scottish Highlands as a term and perfect, these are things that we need to know, so we can get these added for you. Thank you.

Kelly, Bookster:
Fantastic. Okay, there aren't any other questions right now.
I did have a question actually. I was wondering about the inspections.

So when the inspector is coming to see the property, see the extras that are available, does the inspector stay in the property or is it a, can you talk me through that?

Sadie, AA:
Yeah, of course they make contact first as well. They never just show up Kelly, they'd never do that. They make contact with the owner first to find the optimum time to visit because obviously if they just show, it's more than likely that the property's in use.

So they find the best time to visit and then they sit down, the owner will walk them through the properties or property,  and then they'll, they'll walk through all of the amenities and look at all those seven key areas that I talked through.

No, they don't need to stay. They wouldn't need to stay. 

Kelly, Bookster:
And you mentioned if the property had a spa, for example, like extra services, then they would be evaluated as well.

Sadie, AA:
Yeah. 

Kelly, Bookster:
What's the limit with that? Is it, does that incorporate,  kind of external services coming into the business? If somebody would allow a private chef, for example, to come into the property, would that be assessed as well or would that be separate because it's outside of the property? 

Sadie, AA: 
I think it would be measured as an additional feature that you offer and it would be counted towards the star rating without a doubt  but we just measure them and assess what you offer within your star rating.

It would probably increase those levels for you.

Kelly, Bookster:
Okay. Okay. That's really interesting. Thank you.

Sadie, AA:
You are welcome. 

Kelly, Bookster: 
Final question there from Sarah and Steve. so it's saying where is the Visitor Ready on Rated Trips.

Natalie, AA: 
I can answer that Kelly because I think, I think what, thank you Steve asking about a list of Visitor Ready, establishment properties.

So yes, on Rated Trips is a list of the quality rated. There are establishments there that have upgraded and they have, they will be listed there, but you, you know, if you'd have to search by map, you'd have to know them.

There isn't a category of listed Visitor Ready properties.

So that is something that we, again, also it's building into the pages. Eventually there will be, when we've got critical mass, we'd have a list of Visitor Ready, establishment of properties on the Rated Trips site.

But at the moment you can't actually search for just the visitor properties.

It'll just be the upgrade ones that will be listed amongst the other pages.

Kelly, Bookster:
Thank you. Lovely.

Okay, so your details are here. I do also have a different slide if you give me a moment that also has your social channels on too, where people can obviously get in touch if you just hold on here.

So there's your email addresses and social channels for both AA and for Bookster.

Is there anything, Natalie and Sadie, that you'd like to add before we close up for the day?

Sadie, AA: 
No, just thank everybody for joining and for the questions.
There's nothing worse when you do these things and it's just absolute silence. So thank you so much for the interaction.

I really appreciate it. And you know, Kelly, thank you so much for inviting us to deliver this. It's a pleasure to share it. We're both incredibly passionate about it and we really just want to get everybody involved and share it as much as we can.
My pleasure. It was great to see you.

Kelly, Bookster:
Anything you'd like to add, Natalie, before you leave?

Natalie, AA: 
No, I think, I think that's it.
If anybody wants to reach out, obviously you've got our details, you've got Kelly's details
who could also pass on any further questions or information. We are very happy to help.

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In a time when National Quality Grading Schemes like Visit Scotland are being phased out or restructured, UK property owners face a crucial question: How do I show guests they can trust my property?

This free webinar, hosted by the AA and Bookster, offers practical insights into how modern accreditation is becoming the new benchmark for trust. You’ll discover how to position your property as reliable, high-quality, and ready to meet evolving guest expectations.

By embracing accreditation, you not only strengthen your property’s reputation - you future-proof your business in a changing landscape.

Don’t miss this opportunity to lead with trust, boost bookings, and stand out with verified quality.

Frequently Asked Questions

I missed the live event, can I see the replay?

Yes, the replay is available on our website, and on our YouTube channel.

Where can I promote my AA accreditation?

By adding your accreditation to Bookster, you can display your accrediation on your Bookster website.