Hoteliers warn against selective classification

By Macharia Kamau

Hoteliers have expressed discontent over the manner in which the Government has undertaken the classification of tourism facilities in the country.

The exercise that kicked off early this year has pitted hoteliers against the State, with the former saying the classification has been carried out only on selective facilities in Nairobi and Mombasa.

The Government has been trying to undertake the exercise for a number of years now and has delayed due to lack of funds and assessors.

The exercise began in March, but even then it was not a conclusive one as it was just undertaken on a few hotels in the country’s two biggest towns.

As a result, Tourism Ministry said it would undertake a comprehensive classification— in line with the new Tourism Act.

Publishing the results of this classification, hoteliers say, would skew consumers to some hotels and disadvantage others from across that may have been willing to be classified, but the ministry did not factor their regions in the ongoing exercise.

Undue advantage

The exercise that is nearing completion is the first in close to ten years. The time between the last classification in 2003 and today has been deemed as too long ,and some of the hotels may have slipped up or down the ladder.

Thus hotels that may have been rated as five star may have deteriorated, but are still using the 2003 rating to market themselves and even charge patrons pegged on the five star rating.

The bone of contention is however, the nature of the classification that is currently underway and expected to be concluded mid-November, whereby not all facilities have been assessed and players argue that this might give some hoteliers undue advantage.

Tourism Minister Najib Balala said this was just a preliminary exercise pending a comprehensive one, to be done in due course, as the implementation of the new tourist legislation that was signed in to law by the president a month ago gathers momentum.

The Tourism Act creates an authority to regulate the industry.

The body will be charged with setting the standards as well as drawing up classification modalities for tourism facilities and services.

"The initial classification process is scheduled for conclusion mid November but a proper classification will be undertaken once we have constituted the regulatory authority, which is provided in the act," he said.

Hoteliers however say the Government should have undertaken a comprehensive assessment and gazetted the results rather than do piece meal classification leaving certain regions of the classification.

Mike Macharia chief executive Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers said the classification exercise ought to have been undertaken across the entire country, noting that one that just examines a few facilities might put certain players at a disadvantage.

"The classification should be done nationally and according to the Tourism Act. The one done this year just covered a few facilities in Nairobi and Mombasa," he said.