Optimus provides hotels with an approach to managing their business, which combines worldwide standards in hospitality with a tailored approach that reflects the character of each business.

The foundation of the model is the Service Excellence Programme, which ensures that everyone in the organisation makes a very deliberate effort to contribute towards a positive customer experience.

The programme assists in building this positive customer experience by providing a range of practical supports. This includes a customer satisfaction tracking system which ensures hotels are successfully delivering what customers want . . . and not what they think they want.

Failte Ireland's management co-ordinators, in-house trainers and independent assessors ensure these objectives are being achieved.

Organisations registered on the programme receive mentoring, consultancy and training supports as well as training materials that help them to work towards achieving improved standards in each aspect of their business. Once these improvements have been secured, the establishment is then assessed by an independent assessor.

Based on international research, Optimus offers a practical approach to achieving excellence and boosting bottom line results. It comprises three distinct yet interrelated levels of recognition.

This enables companies to progress through the different levels, building their capabilities at each stage and gaining recognition as they make progress.

The three levels are the Ireland's Best Award, the Mark of Best Practice and the Award of Excellence. These three levels are derived from the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Model and this is reflected in the assessment and scoring criteria.

Ireland's Best Award Most hospitality and tourism businesses believe they already provide first-rate customer service but research shows that often only a minority of customers agree. What sets high-performing businesses apart is the degree to which they and their staff go beyond the basics and exceed customer expectations.

Service Excellence, already an established concept under 'Ireland's Best', underpins the Optimus programme. It is about creating and developing a service excellence culture that is specific to each organisation. The Service Excellence programme offers management training workshops, staff training, a customer satisfaction tracking system and related benchmarking reports.

Mark of Best Practice Competitiveness remains a key challenge for the hospitality and tourism industry.

To be competitive, businesses must find ways to improve efficiency, boost productivity and reduce costs. With Best Practice, Failte Ireland provides participants with a framework to help them match their business processes against the best in the world.

Best Practice teams work on action plans to implement continuous improvement in operational areas - food and beverage, accommodation, reception, administration, marketing, finance, and human resources.

The Best Practice programme includes Best Practice 'pack', workshops, mentoring support, site visits and team development sessions.

Specialist advisors and documentation are at hand to guide participants through each business process.

Award of Excellence Optimus Business Excellence uses the model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Business Excellence provides a framework to help firms measure their position on the route to excellence, identify where improvements could be made and develop innovative solutions.

To be successful at this level, companies must display a strong results orientation, a passionate customer focus, a commitment to performance measures and an enthusiasm for continuous learning and innovation.

The Optimus Business Excellence programme provides a range of consultancy tools to help participants engage in self-assessment and continuous improvement.

Advisors will support this journey to meet the extensive excellence criteria, and can arrange best practice site visits and benchmarking workshops.