27/09/2026
🥳 From hospitality to aviation - Rashida Martineau, CQI Affiliate Member: "Quality is hospitality's oldest tradition, and true excellence is never accidental. My journey into quality began in hospitality, where delivering consistent, high-standard guest experiences is essential.
From my 20+ years at our family-owned hotel: Lesville Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago, I learned that quality is more than service, it is systems, processes, and attention to detail that ensure every guest interaction meets and exceeds expectations.
As I progressed into operations, guest relations, and later aviation security and safety, I began to see quality more holistically: through governance, assurance, and continuous improvement.
Whether managing hotel operations, supporting large-scale events, or ensuring compliance in airport environments, my focus has always been on maintaining standards, reducing risk, and improving performance.
Moving to Dubai and pursuing formal professional development brought everything into sharper focus.
When I was introduced to the Chartered Quality Institute by Dr. Kamela Palma, I recognised immediately that its values — rigour, continuous improvement, service to stakeholders — are the very foundations of great hospitality.
That same commitment to structured excellence drives me today as I pursue a professional Diploma in Aviation Safety and Security at Emirates Aviation University, further deepening my expertise at the intersection of service, safety, and operational quality.
Becoming a CQI Affiliate Member feels like coming home to a professional identity I have always carried.
For me, it is not simply a credential — it is the formal recognition of a conviction I have lived by throughout my entire career: that quality is hospitality's oldest tradition, and that true excellence is never accidental. It is designed, anticipated, and continuously improved.
I am deeply grateful to Dr Kamela Palma for her generous recommendation and to CQI for championing a vision of quality that spans every sector and every form of service excellence. I am proud to now carry that conviction forward – into a global professional community and into every environment I serve"
