More hotels to be rated in new grading exercise

The Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) has embarked on a fresh process to classify hotels in the country.

TRA Director-General Kipkorir Lagat told The Standard in Mombasa at the weekend they had received several requests from establishments that were not covered when the exercise was carried out last year.

“Those not classified had asked for time to undertake upgrades in their establishments. They are now ready to be classified and from this week, we have our team of accredited assessors visiting the establishments,” said Lagat.

Hotels are usually classified as one, two, three, four or five-star.

Mr Lagat said the classification exercise would first be held in Nairobi before moving to Machakos and later to the North and South Rift. A new entrant in the hotel business, Gelian Hotel in Machakos town, is lined up for classification.

“We have prepared well and hope for the best as we await officials from TRA to come,” Mr Alfonse Kioko, chairman of Gelian Hotel, said.

Results of last year’s classification published early this year showed that major hotel brands were missing from the TRA list.

Locally, the highly rated hotels are concentrated in Nairobi, which has 10 five-star establishments.

Some of the major tourism circuits that depend on the sector for survival have no hotels that has five stars.