Bureau Veritas Verifies Synergy's Health & Safety Global Program, SynergyCares

Synergy is the first corporate housing provider to earn global approval from the hotel industry’s benchmark in health and safety accreditation

Published on Tuesday, November 16th, 2021 by Ryan Smith

Today, Synergy Global Housing (Synergy), a global leader in serviced accommodation program management, announced the worldwide verification by Bureau Veritas of its nine-step health and safety program, SynergyCares.

“Covering every guest and client touchpoint, SynergyCares was developed against the backdrop of COVID-19 to deliver peace of mind that every Synergy apartment, whether in San Francisco, London, Singapore, or Korat, Thailand, is held to the same high standards of sanitization and duty of care,” said Joan McCarthy Mack, VP of Supply Chain, Synergy. “With Bureau Veritas’ verification, we have third-party objective assurance that our apartments benchmark the industry’s highest standards for health, safety, and security.”

SynergyCares, as well as the program’s comprehensive training curriculum, is the first health and safety program from a corporate housing provider to earn the excellence verification from Bureau Veritas, an organization heralded as the gold standard for health and safety accreditation within the global hotel industry.

“Synergy is committed to elevating the serviced apartments industry standard to be on par with the larger and more regulated hotel industry—a necessary step forward as remote work trends introduce a wider audience to the serviced apartment and aparthotel lodging concept,” said David Vigil, Sr. Director of Product and Business Development for Bureau Veritas. “We applaud Synergy for taking the necessary steps to ensure SynergyCares meets the most comprehensive duty of care standards in the hospitality industry.”

To obtain Bureau Veritas accreditation, the SynergyCares program needed to meet the following rigorous criteria:

  • Deliver sustainable results (i.e., the program’s standards must sustain continuity through natural disasters, global pandemics, acts of terror, etc.)
  • Raise the existing standard (i.e., the program needed to elevate or evolve pre-existing practices)
  • Be accompanied by robust training and testing (i.e., maintain an 80 percent fail threshold)
  • Contain measurable outcomes to demonstrate success
  • Show proof of benefit to internal Synergy staff

“SynergyCares is an enduring, holistic approach to how we care for our guests, clients, staff, and the environment; and in doing so acts as a model for the industry to follow,” said Stephen Hanton, President International, Synergy. “Everything from our internal training programs to the way we enter apartments to lift protocols to contactless entry to mid-stay check-ins—down to the selection and alignment criteria we use to partner with global supply chain providers—every last detail has been thoroughly thought through and is now fully vetted and verified by the hospitality industry’s most reputable accreditation body.”

The measured, comprehensive health and safety initiative was developed to align with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), European Center for Disease Control (ECDC), and World Health Organization (WHO) sanitization and cleanliness standards. The SynergyCares nine-step commitment reinforces duty of care policies and procedures for guests, clients, and business partners while maintaining a safe work environment for staff.

The SynergyCares nine-step commitment covers the following elements of the guest and client experience:

  1. Sanitization
  2. Guest Safety
  3. Synergy Staff
  4. Contactless Arrivals
  5. Housekeeping
  6. Control Your Space
  7. Public Areas
  8. Supply Chain Partners
  9. Duty of Care

While, at its core, the health and safety initiative defines nine essential steps to protect guests and staff; bigger picture, SynergyCares is a holistic approach to the methods, products, and philosophy Synergy uses to better protect global travelers now and into the future.

“Everything we do is about ensuring the highest quality guest experience possible,” said Hanton.

“With the backing of Bureau Veritas, we believe we’ve laid the groundwork to give buyers and guests alike the confidence they need to get back on the road and ultimately help restore business travel and relocation commerce to pre-pandemic levels.”

About Synergy Global Housing:
Founded in 1999, Synergy is an international serviced accommodation provider headquartered in San Ramon, CA, delivering a superior hospitality-driven extended-stay experience to the business travel and mobility industries. Providing best-in-class housing and services in over 2,000 cities in more than 85 countries, the company has offices in China, Singapore, India, England, Ireland and multiple locations throughout the United States. Recognized globally, Synergy’s recent awards include 2021 Corporate Housing Provider of the Year from the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) U.S. and EMEA regions; 2021 and 2020 Corporate Housing Provider of the Year from the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA); 2020 Corporate Business of the Year from the Association of Services Apartment Providers (ASAP), and the 2020 Best Service Apartment Provider – Regional/Global award from Relocate Magazine.

Synergy is a member of The Ascott Limited (Ascott), a leading international lodging owner-operator based in Singapore. Spanning more than 200 cities in over 30 countries, Ascott’s serviced residence and hotel brands include Ascott The Residence, The Crest Collection, Somerset, Quest, Citadines, lyf, Préférence, Vertu, Harris, Citadines Connect, Fox, Yello, Fox Lite and POP!. Ascott is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Investment (CLI), one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups headquartered and listed in Singapore and Malaysia. Today, Ascott boasts over 30 years of industry track record and award-winning brands that enjoy recognition worldwide.

About Bureau Veritas:
Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 78,000 employees located in more than 1,600 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its 400,000 clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.