Meeting & Events Hotels In Virginia Beach|"Minute Guidelines For Star Luxury Hotels"

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Meeting & Events Hotels In Virginia Beach

Planning a five-star deluxe hotel in India? Just make sure there are enough hooks in the bathroom and a phone next to the toilet. The government, it appears, will let no feature go overlooked in its quest to ensure India's luxury hotels don't stint on anything, including hooks — three in the bathroom to allow guests to hang up their clothes. Oh, and the toilet has to be equipped with "modern water-based, post-toilet-paper hygiene facilities".The hotel industry is aghast at the minute details into which the government has gone in a directive issued on Friday listing new guidelines on the requirements of a five-star hotel. "The ministry of tourism should focus on reducing the number of licences required to set up a hotel, the time taken for permissions and work on visa-related issues so that more tourists visit the country rather than on such micro aspects," said Manav Thadani, chairman of hotel consultancy HVS India, which is working with several new hotels coming up across the country.

Another hotel owner said such norms will only lead to harassment by ministry officials. "They are trying to create their own relevance here," he said. These rules include, apart from hooks, water sprays and blackout curtains, a "luminous LED wall clock with numerals of three inches or more" near the swimming pool. Also, "it will be desirable for all 5-star deluxe hotels to have air-conditioned porches." "How can a hotel have an air-conditioned porch?" wondered the hotelier cited above. Hotels have two to eight years to adhere to the tourism ministry guidelines that aim to make them more "customer-oriented". A senior ministry of tourism official said the guidelines haven't been updated for a long time, hence they have been revised. "There hasn't been a revision in the classification guidelines for many years and one has to move with time," he said. "We do not want to compel hotel operators or force these guidelines on them by making them mandatory, but the hotels which will follow them will be recognised by the government and will benefit."

The move is a "frivolous attempt by government to micromanage a sector" already battered by the slowdown in tourism and the gloomy business climate, said the hotelier cited above. Very few countries follow star rating systems. Their categorisation is based on the size of rooms, safety and security systems, number of restaurants etc. For the big international brands that have entered India over the last decade, classification by the government and the benefits of that don't matter as they follow their own standards when building hotels. But many of them have to necessarily apply for classification because certain licences and permissions for hotels are linked to it in some states. Hoteliers are irked by the granular detail, especially since "brand standards are much higher than what the government is asking for", as Thadani put it.

Classification by the government is required for licences, permissions and funding, but doesn't help the hotel in terms of positioning. "That is based on brand standards and consumer preferences," said KB Kachru, chairman, South Asia, Carlson Hotels. Travellers know what to expect from an international brand as well the recognised Indian ones, said Saeed Shervani, executive member of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India. He also runs a mid-sized hotel in Delhi. "Why do they need to get into the nitty-gritty of these things? This makes classification very problematic," he said.

Source:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-09-09/news/41903454_1_hotel-owner-hotel-industry-star-luxury-hotels