New hotel classification system put in place in Oman

"The hotel classification system has been put in place to ensure tourists that they will get a good Omani product. It looks at quality rather than just the physical aspects. Aside from classifying, it looks at the quality aspect of the hotels and the service apartments," said Sven Gade, Director of Middle East Strategy Advisors (Mesa), a firm commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism of Oman to determine the need for a sustainable system that can be administered at a local level.

The new system, said Gade, also offers other features that benefits various sectors of Oman's tourism industry. "The other thing it does is that it sets an international standard whereby tour operators and travel agents, booking from all over the world, have a guideline what kind of products they will package into their tours. So if it says a 4-star hotel in Oman, then it is a 4-star hotel in an international level," he said.

Although the system is for hotels, hotel apartments, service apartments, and self-catering apartments, it also covers other special products like heritage villages, palaces, and desert camps.

"The system falls in line with international requirements but it also takes into consideration Omani special requirements. For instance, if it's very difficult to have a 4-star hotel up on the mountains with a pool, it allows for an offset environment where if you have a very good service, view or venue for hiking, then that can make up for a pool that is not there. You cannot force a hotel to be a 4-star just because it doesn't have a pool when everything else is perfect," Gade explained.

He mentioned that developers of corporate projects like hotels and resorts would also benefit from the new classification system as this will give them physical guidelines as early as their planning and designing stages. "There's a very clear step process in opening a hotel from the classification to the licensing. The Ministry of Tourism will even go all the way to offer a tourism service development agent that will help developers find their way through all the red tape," Gade disclosed.

The system, which had its pre-introduction during the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) at the Dubai World Trade Centre this week, will be carried out through a 12-month period. During this time, existing hotels will go through the classification process and inspectors will advise them as to other possibilities, which are either to match the new classification to obtain the target rating or to reposition themselves in the market.

"Classification will be compulsary. Hotels have to be licensed and classified because it's the government of Oman that gives the quality assurance to the world," Gade said.

He added that the new system is unique in that the new breed of inspecting team, which had gone through rigid training and are knowledgeable of the hotel industry, ceases to be a police force but serves as advisers to the hotel operators.

The system was based on an international benchmark review of 25 existing systems, including that of Dubai's.