The new hotel classification system, created on the basis of special studies and focused on the international principles of organizing the hotel industry, will come into effect within a year, replacing the previous system. While so far hotels have been assigned categories from 1 to 5 “stars”, in the new classification system, the category “budget” will be added to these traditional categories to designate cheap hotels that remained “starless” until that time.
The new hotel classification system will also be more detailed, not only assigning a star category to hotels, but also evaluating them by type of accommodation, according to special criteria. In particular, such types of accommodation are established as “Resort” (resort complex), “Guest House” (boarding house), “Timeshare” (timeshare), “Youth Hostel” (youth hotel), Self-Catering (accommodation based on self-service) and University Campus (university campus).
In addition, the best five-star hotels in the emirate of Dubai will be evaluated according to the new criterion “Accolades”, according to which they will be assigned an additional “Gold” (gold) or “Platinum” (platinum) category.
According to representatives of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing, the main goal of introducing a new hotel classification system is to expand the range of accommodation opportunities, which should become more diverse, combining, oriented towards sustainable development and international standards, but at the same time, taking into account local specifics.
To successfully introduce new quality standards for the hotel industry, DTKM plans, on the one hand, to conduct relevant seminars and trainings for all interested companies, and on the other hand, to develop software that will automate the classification of hotels in one or another new category.
