An LQA audit is an anonymous assessment of a luxury hotel by Leading Quality Assurance (LQA). An LQA assessor stays at the hotel as a regular guest for 1 to 3 nights. The assessor scores the hotel against more than 1,000 LQA standards. After the stay, the hotel gets a report and a debrief with the assessor.
LQA full form: Leading Quality Assurance
The full form of LQA is Leading Quality Assurance. LQA is a company in London, UK. According to Leading Quality Assurance (lqagroup.com), it has worked in luxury hospitality for more than two decades.
LQA sells guest service assessments, in-person staff training (UpFront by LQA), a training program for future leaders (ACADEMY by LQA) and a software tool for hotel teams (myLQA). The assessment is the service that people call an "LQA audit". LQA itself uses the word assessment. The two terms mean the same thing.
An individual hotel or a hotel group books the assessment. LQA serves single hotels and groups of more than 20 hotels.
LQA standards: the published counts
LQA says that an assessment measures more than 1,000 luxury standards. LQA publishes how many standards each department has. Food and beverage has the most standards. Housekeeping has 117.
The same standards, sorted by performance criterion
LQA also sorts its standards by what they measure. It publishes a maximum count for each of these 8 performance criteria. LQA gives each count as "up to" a number.
The emotional rating
Each assessment also records how the guest felt. LQA uses a scale with 5 levels, from "extremely dissatisfied" to "completely engaged".
How an LQA assessment works
The most important fact about an LQA audit is that it is anonymous. LQA says that all of its assessments are done "under the guise of a regular guest". No staff member knows who the assessor is. The assessor books, stays and uses the hotel as a paying guest does. Thus the score shows the real guest experience, not a rehearsed one.
- Duration. An assessment usually lasts 1 to 3 nights. The length depends on the size and the needs of the hotel.
- Frequency. LQA says that the frequency depends on the hotel's goals. It recommends a minimum of 2 assessments each year.
- The assessor. LQA uses full-time consultants. Each one has managed luxury hotels for at least 5 years, according to LQA.
- The evidence. The report can include audio of guest calls, such as reservation calls. It can also include photos of service points, such as the condition of a room.
- The result. The hotel gets a digital report and a debrief with the assessor. The report shows each standard as met, not met or not applicable, and compares the result with the last assessment.
Between assessments, LQA gives hotels two tools: self-assessments and action plans. A self-assessment is a small audit that the hotel team does with the LQA standards.
LQA vs a brand standards audit
People often mix up the two. They have different owners.
- A brand standards audit comes from the hotel's brand or franchisor. It uses the brand's own rules. The result is part of the franchise relationship.
- An LQA assessment comes from an independent company that the hotel or hotel group books. It uses the LQA standards. The report goes to the hotel's management, as a tool to train staff and improve.
Many luxury hotels have both. For the full picture, read how hotel brand audits work. To compare LQA with a different mystery guest company, read Coyle vs LQA.
How a hotel stays ready for an assessor it cannot see
The hotel books the assessment, but it does not know the dates or the name of the assessor. The assessor can stay on any night. The front desk can give the assessor any room. Thus a hotel cannot prepare one room for one guest. The only safe condition is that every room meets the standard every day.
The room is the hard part. Many of the standards that an assessor sees in a room are about condition: stains on furniture, marks on walls, dirty windows, a TV control that does not work. A supervisor can check some rooms each day. The rooms that nobody checks are the risk, because the assessor can get one of them.
Hotels that stay ready do these things:
- Learn the standards. Give housekeeping the housekeeping, product and cleanliness standards in plain words, with photos of "ready" and "not ready".
- Do self-assessments between visits. Use LQA self-assessments, or your own checks against the same standards, each month.
- Check every finished room, not a sample. A sample tells you the average. The assessor sees one specific room.
- Find repeat misses. Record each miss by room and by attendant. Train for the misses that come back.
- Fix the room before the next guest. A miss that you find after check-in is a miss that the assessor can find too.
What RapidEye does
RapidEye checks every room from the photos and video that housekeeping already takes. You send us the media. RapidEye's AI platform analyzes it. We return the findings for each room: missed cleaning, damage, missing items and standards not met.
Thus the hotel knows the condition of every room, not only the rooms that a supervisor saw. The rooms that need work get fixed before a guest, or an assessor, checks in. Read how to inspect more hotel rooms without more supervisors.
Quick FAQ
What is an LQA audit?
An LQA audit is an anonymous assessment of a luxury hotel by Leading Quality Assurance (LQA). An LQA assessor stays at the hotel as a regular guest for 1 to 3 nights. The assessor scores the hotel against more than 1,000 LQA standards. After the stay, the hotel gets a report and a debrief with the assessor. LQA calls this service an assessment.
What is the full form of LQA?
LQA is the short form of Leading Quality Assurance. It is a company in London that assesses luxury hotels. It also sells staff training (UpFront by LQA) and a software tool for hotel teams (myLQA).
What are the LQA standards?
The LQA standards are more than 1,000 luxury standards that LQA uses to score a hotel. LQA publishes the counts by department: 379 for food and beverage, 179 for front of house, 117 for housekeeping, 109 for product, 53 for spa and fitness, 49 for golf and 32 for transport, plus a set of other standards. LQA also sorts the standards by performance criterion, for example up to 272 for emotional intelligence and up to 69 for cleanliness.
Is an LQA audit anonymous?
Yes. LQA says that all of its assessments are done under the guise of a regular guest. No staff member knows who the assessor is. Thus the score shows the real guest experience.
How often does LQA assess a hotel?
The hotel decides, because the hotel books the assessments. LQA says that the frequency depends on the hotel's goals. LQA recommends a minimum of 2 assessments each year. Each assessment usually lasts 1 to 3 nights, based on the size and needs of the hotel.
How do hotels stay ready for an anonymous LQA stay?
A hotel cannot know which night or which room the assessor will get. Thus every room must meet the standard every day. Hotels use LQA self-assessments between visits. They also check each finished room, not only a sample, and they fix repeat misses before the next guest arrives. RapidEye helps with the room checks: it checks every room from the photos and video that housekeeping already takes.
Is LQA the same as a brand standards audit?
No. A brand standards audit comes from the hotel's brand or franchisor. It uses the brand's own rules, and the result is part of the franchise relationship. An LQA assessment comes from an independent company that the hotel or hotel group books. It uses the LQA standards, and the report goes to the hotel's management. Many luxury hotels have both.
Sources
Sources are named at the publisher level with their root domain, rather than linked or titled; every figure is verifiable at the named source.
- Hotel assessment, standards and company information, Leading Quality Assurance (LQA)lqagroup.com