There are also international standards of quality that can be used to elevate quality in hotels, such as the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) ISO 9000 series. In the ISO 8402 quality is defined as:
"…the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs" (ISO 8402, 1986). It is an operation requirement in certain hotel chains that ISO 9000 certification is attained and that such certificates are displayed for guests to see as they check in to a hotel.
Benchmarking is one way in which a hotel can do an objective self assessment of its quality issues as it strives to provide quality service. Many hotels, therefore, tend to do benchmarking to guarantee an improvement in the quality of their offerings. Bullivant (1994) explains that benchmarking is "the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against leaders, allowing the identification of best practices which will lead to sustained and superior performance". In this process, hotels may seek to make comparisons with their competitors, or even non- competitive organisations conducting similar functions, such as for example guest houses and lodges and even cruise ships. They may also undertake comparisons of similar processes in organisations with totally different functions.