The HEHA Award prides itself as the pinnacle of hotel achievements. With over 500 sophisticated criteria, only less than 1% of luxury hotels so far meet our award standards.
We are one of the few hotel awards that still sends anonymous hotel inspectors to evaluate properties. All of our hotel inspectors follow our standardized hotel inspection rubric that strongly emphasizes hotel hygiene and staff hospitality.
Besides our anonymous inspection format, we never assign the same inspector to visit a property more than once within a 3-year period. We are committed to maintaining our independence and impartiality from hotel brands, ensuring unbiased judgments and fair award decisions.
Our evaluation consists of 4 components
General Evaluation
Component 1
Our general evaluation component consists of over 500 criteria that our hotel inspectors need to evaluate at a hotel property. It is the most heavily weighted portion of every HEHA hotel inspection.
Expectation vs Reality
Component 2
The purpose of our expectation vs reality assessment is to identify hotels that offer the same level of experience as they claimed. Every HEHA Awarded property always exceeds a traveler's pre-arrival expectation. Our expectation vs. reality assessment uses proprietary technology we cannot disclose further.
Employee Care
Component 3
We believe that genuine hospitality comes from the happiness and satisfaction of every hotel staff. Therefore, since 2022, we added employee care as a new requirement a hotel property must meet to qualify for the award. Our inspectors have been trained to recognize subtle cues in employee interaction.
Most awarded hotels will demonstrate all of the following.
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High employee satisfaction
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Fair living wage for all
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No illegal employment (Including Housekeepers)
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Little to no employee disputes
Eco-Friendly Effort
Component 4
In 2024, all hotels eligible for the award must demonstrate a sustainable approach to their hotel operation. There is a difference between cost-cutting and protecting the environment. Not providing single-use amenities unless requested is not sufficient to meet our requirement.