New rating exposes hotels’ falling standards as 2019 deadline looms

Are you paying five-star rates and receiving third-rate services that do not tally with the charges at a hotel?

Results of the latest hotel classification exercise undertaken by the Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) could best explain the reason for this anomaly.

Major hotel brands are missing from the classification list that gives hotels a star rating, with the best hotels in the country getting five stars.

There are only 18 of these in Kenya. In other markets, there are hotels that have a seven-star rating, the highest so far.

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 got five stars. The Coast region and the Masai Mara have a low number of the five-star hotels despite the two circuits painting the perfect picture of the traditional bush and beach tourism products in the country.

The coast region only has three five-star hotels, none of which are in Mombasa County. This is despite Mombasa having numerous hotels that have always marketed themselves as five-star. The Masai Mara area only has two five-star hotels.

The few hotels that were given a five-star rating in a country where tourism is a key economic sector could be explained by the high number of hotels that shunned the exercise.

Many instead requested the regulator to give them more time to undertake renovations at their facilities.

“When the classification began, many hotels were not ready. Some have gone for as many as 10 years without renovation because business was undergoing serious turbulence since 2007, especially at the Coast. There was a good reason as to why they did not participate,” said Sam Ikwaye, Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Coast branch executive officer.

“There was negotiated compliance and hotels were allowed to defer but will pay a penalty when they are ready to get classified. There are facilities undergoing renovation or investors are planning to put in money in renovation. There is agreement that the essence of classification is not to punish but to assess the level.”

Maintain standards

Mr Ikwaye, who was also among the assessors, noted that the criteria that TRA has used this year was new and might explain why not all hoteliers are ready to get on board as they try to adjust their facilities to fit the new classification requirements. The new criterion has been adopted by all East African Community countries.

“It is new criteria and looks at many things, unlike the former criteria where you had one assessor walk in and check. This time, we had three assessors looking at one thing at a time and prepared a detailed report, including photo evidence. A classification committee audited the report and passed it on to the classification board,” he said. “Many people could also be waiting to see if the regulator will put its foot down.”

Ikwaye also pointed out at the challenge that the recently formed tourism industry regulator faced in policing the industry and ensuring that the rated hotels maintain the standards.

The hoteliers are pushing for self-regulation, with the Tourism Professional Association, a professional body drawing membership from the tourism industry, touted as ideal to work with the regulator in maintaining standards. “TRA is currently relying on a few staff who might be stretched and may not have capacity in classification. Classification in other markets is not a government function but a private sector initiative,” he said.

“As it is, we lack proper measures to ensure that standards are upheld and maintained. The TRA regulations provide for a professional association and we hope that TRA can work with the Tourism Professional Association, which is a professionalbody that can help police hoteliers to maintain the standards. Such an oversight of industry should not be left to the Government and investors alone.”

Classification of tourism facilities is a mandatory requirement for all tourism facilities as per the Tourism Act of 2011. TRA has the legal mandate of undertaking classification of hotels and other tourist facilities as well as licence industry operators.

TRA has given hoteliers six months to get their facilities classified or risk penalties that include non-renewal of licences.

Samuel Ngumbao, chairman TRA, said all tourist facilities that include hotels, camps and lodges have up to January 2019 to get their facilities inspected by the authority and given a star rating of between two and five.

“We have realised most hotels are not serious about maintaining standards of products and services offered to guests and as a result, we have decided as a regulatory body to hold every hotel into account through subjecting them to a mandatory classification exercise,” said Mr Ngumbao.

A total of 180 facilities were classified in the exercise that started in 2015.

Ngumbao said the move is aimed at upping the quality of products and services that the industry offers tourists and play a part in growing competitiveness of Kenya as a destination.

The conclusion of this particular phase of hotel classification by TRA follows a long process of inspecting facilities that has aborted several times and taken more than 10 years to conclude. Past issues that stalled the process included lack of standards as well as the slow operationalisation of the regulatory agency.

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