The hotel industry across western India has voiced concern against the new guidelines prescribed by the Tourism Ministry for classification of hotels.

The sector has primarily expressed reservations against some of the criteria based on which hotels will be star-rated such as designated parking facilities, sewage treatment plants, X-Ray checking machines and high percentage of skilled staff.

“It will not be practical for the operative hotels to have designated parking facilities and sewage treatment plant due to space constraints. This should be applicable only to upcoming projects. Furthermore, it will be impossible to adhere to the guidelines within one year,” said Suresh Talera the newly elected president of Hotel and Restaurant Association (Western India).

The Tourism Ministry has also emphasised on the mandatory installation of X-Ray checking machines in all A and B Grade hotels. The association said that though they are not against security measures, small hotels will find it difficult to incorporate the changes at such a short notice. “These machines need to be imported and require trained manpower to operate them. The costs of installing these X-ray machines is fromRs 50 lakh-60 lakh, which is not viable for one star or two star hotels. Hoteliers believe the existing use of metal detectors for physical checking of guests and manual checking of luggages is sufficient. “The rule that restricts old hotels from being classified in the star category if it doesn’t have X-Ray machine is not justifiable,” said Talera.

Hoteliers are also unhappy with the percentage of qualified and skilled manpower required for each category. According to the new policy, one and two-star should now have 20 per cent, three and four-star should have 30 per cent and five-star and above should have 60 per cent of the skilled staff. Whereas earlier it was 10 per cent in one-star, 15 per cent for two-star, 20 per cent for three-star, 25 per cent for four-star and 30 per cent for five-star. The ministry has set a deadline of September 1, 2010 to implement the new norms.

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