This week it became known that the association of entrepreneurs "Opora Rossii" sent a letter to the new head of the Ministry of Economic Development with a request to cancel the mandatory classification of hotels, making it voluntary. However, as it turned out, not all market participants share this position.
The document states that "due to strict technical requirements, the hotel classification process has become difficult for business." The message also mentions a proposal to minimize mandatory requirements for technical equipment, simplify the system itself, and extend the validity of classification certificates from three to five years, under the pretext that "the (classification) process is becoming an excessive burden for business and does not take into account the economics of hotel industry facilities."
However, as experts emphasize, the procedure of mandatory classification of hotels has only just begun to bear fruit - in terms of improving the technical equipment of accommodation facilities, assessing its quality, improving the qualifications of personnel, etc.
"Yes, the regulatory framework may not be entirely perfect; this problem is currently being addressed by the working group of the "regulatory guillotine" on tourism, the Classification Council of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. The work is ongoing, and now is precisely the period when, by the end of the year, it is possible to thoroughly "clean up" the regulatory acts, putting many things in order," he told the TRN portal President of the Russian Hotel Association (RHA) Gennady Lamshin.
As for the procedure of mandatory classification of hotels, if it is replaced with a voluntary one, then, according to the RGA, this will throw the hotel market back to the last century.
"We have all been moving towards mandatory classification for a long time. The decision was supported by all relevant public organizations, including the Russian Union of Travel Industry and the Russian Hotel Association, adopted by the State Duma and the Federation Council and the President of Russia. And it was truly a breakthrough - both for the hotel and tourism industries. Today, the positive results are obvious, and a lot has been done: thanks to the classification (all hotels with 15 or more rooms have already received certificates, only very small mini-hotels remain), it has finally become possible to find out the exact number of accommodation facilities in the Russian Federation, as well as their room stock. It has become possible to monitor the condition of the facilities, the level of personnel training," the expert emphasizes.
In addition, the RGA believes that it is wrong to talk about an “exorbitant financial burden”: for example, on average, the cost of passing the classification procedure for a 3* hotel with 100-150 rooms (and there are indeed many of these in the Russian Federation) is about 35-40 thousand rubles, the certificate is valid for three years. If you break the payment down by month, you get a sum of only 1,000 rubles per month: for any hotel enterprise of this scale, the expert believes, it is practically unnoticeable.
"In the case where it was necessary to invest in hotel renovation and staff training to obtain a certificate, we do not argue that it is more expensive. However, even here the expenses are not prohibitive, and are quite justified: after all, tourists - especially foreign ones - are already aware of the mandatory classification of accommodation facilities in the Russian Federation, and they always pay attention to the "stars" when choosing a hotel before a trip. It is important for them to receive decent service, and the officially confirmed star rating of the facility for a given period of time guarantees this. Only thanks to the mandatory classification can we promise foreign and Russian guests a stable quality of service. And it is thanks to it that we have already managed to achieve an increase in tourist flow. So in this sense, it has already justified itself," concluded Gennady Lamshin.
We would like to add that at the moment, the Russian State Administration has contacted specialized communities and associations of hoteliers, including those from the regions, with a request to express their opinion by preparing relevant appeals to the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia.
Source: trn-news.ru