Quality Standards: CST / ISOPARQUE
DEL LAGO PIONEERS ISO INSTRUMENTATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA, and is one of the
very few hotels in America to recognize its true contribution on the line of
better practices and capacity building. ISO provides an instrument that allows management to establish and
follow a set of guidelines for quality management and stands alone. The practice itself requires the involvement
of all levels of management and operation, thus providing a training opportunity
to all and the recognition of an effort responsibility of all. Product and services manuals implemented in different operations around
the world, as well as those provided by franchises, are a far product from that
practice of ISO, as it provides a manual to be followed, but not the system to
accomplish a vision of personal improvement. Also part of this system is the requirement to
recognize industry standards, as well as those of better practices, be it in
the line of business, social responsibility, sustainability or others which
account for worldwide experience and exposing all participants to a wider
vision of the activity itself and how it caters to different clients. In tourism, this is of immeasurable value, as
travelers by definition, compare different products, services. Why standards matter Standards make an enormous
and positive contribution to most aspects of our lives. Standards ensure desirable
characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental
friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - and at
an economical cost. When products and services
meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the
role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon
care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible
with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products, systems,
machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards.
And the organization responsible for many thousands of the standards
which benefit the world is ISO. When standards are absent, we soon notice. |
