Silversea forges hospitality training partnership

**Ally** · 08-08-2006, 04:55 PM

Silversea Cruises formed a hospitality training partnership with The Leading Hotel Schools of the World, an organization founded by The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.; Niagara University in Niagara Falls, N.Y.; and Hotelschool The Hague, the Netherlands.

Silversea is the first cruise line to use a customized training program developed in partnership with the organization.

‘Silversea and The Leading Hotel Schools of the World share a passion for service excellence, and this partnership will allow us to work together to take the training of our staff to the next level,’ said Silversea ceo Albert Peter.

In conjunction with the new alliance, the cruise line has hired additional on-board staff to coordinate training, including a fleet director of employee relations and a crew relations manager. The company is also sending three of its hospitality staff to Hotelschool The Hague this summer for a management development program in the first of an ongoing series of on-site and off-site educational seminars and initiatives.

In related moves, Silversea recently revamped its guest satisfaction questionnaire and hired an outside firm to monitor the results of the survey. Leading Quality Assurance, a consulting service affiliated with The Leading Hotels of the World, was enlisted to implement a ‘secret shopper’ inspection process and benchmark and critique the cruise line’s performance. A new quality assurance auditor has also been appointed.