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Following the announcement of Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s™ (SLH) partnership with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), Rockliffe Hall in County Durham, UK, has become the luxury brand’s first hotel to achieve GBAC STAR accreditation.

The opportunity to gain accreditation, viewed as the gold standard for prepared facilities, will now be available to all of SLH’s 500+ hotels around the world as part of the luxury brand’s Stay Small, Stay Safe promise.

The accreditation shows that Rockliffe Hall, under the guidance of GBAC, a Division of ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, has implemented the most stringent protocols for cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention across all its hotel facilities.

As the cleaning industry’s only outbreak prevention, response and recovery accreditation, GBAC STAR™ helps organisations establish protocols and procedures and offers expert-led trainings so Rockliffe Hall can create a safe space for its staff and hotel guests alike.

Jason Adams, Managing Director at Rockliffe Hall says:

“While we also have accreditations from smaller companies this GBAC documentation is very much more detailed and has refocused our attention on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

“It was really important for us to get this accreditation for our team, for our members and for our guests to make sure we are a safe place for them all.”

“We congratulate Rockliffe Hall on its GBAC STAR accreditation and applaud its commitment to ensuring a clean, safe, and healthy environment,” said GBAC Executive Director Patricia Olinger.

“Rockliffe Hall is an amazing place. As the first Small Luxury Hotels of the World member to achieve GBAC STAR, Rockliffe Hall has exemplified its leadership in implementing a cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention program for the benefit of its guests and staff.”

Richard Hyde, Managing Director of SLH says:

“We’d like to congratulate Rockliffe Hall for taking this step to make sure that their staff can work there and guests can visit with true peace of mind.

“As we now roll this initiative out to the rest of our SLH member hotels we encourage them all to follow Rockliffe Hall’s example so that through this and our wider Stay Small, Stay Safe programme we can reassure guests and inspire them to travel again, be it domestically or internationally.”

To achieve GBAC STAR™ accreditation, SLH hotels are required to demonstrate compliance with the programme’s 20 core elements, which range from standard operating procedures and risk assessment strategies to personal protective equipment and emergency preparedness and response measures.