New Hotel Star Rating to Raise Bar High

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The Ministry of Culture & Tourism (MoCT) has launched a new draft document to  outline the standards and requirements for hotels and lodges. This comes two years after the MoCT suspended earlier standards, which had been controversial among stakeholders.

The long awaited draft document was launched on August 13, 2013, in a meeting the Ministry held with stakeholders at its headquarters, on Sudan Street.

The draft document was prepared by Dunira Strategy, a Scottish company, after the previous star category, which was prepared and implemented by the Ministry, failed. Dunira Strategy took the project two years ago, after winning an international bid.

“The previous standard failed because most of the hotels complained that they were not informed prior to the approval of the standard,” Melaku Alamirew, public relations officer with the Ministry, told Fortune.

Radisson Blu, Capital Hotel & Spa and Global Hotel were three hotels selected by the MoCT to test the availability of the facilities set by the new draft document. The new star classification will be applied to hotels during this fiscal year, says a senior hotel expert at the MoCT,

The Ministry expects to designate standards for around 350 hotels. In addition to this, the MoCT has also prepared requirements for grading lodges. But, for the time being, the evaluation will be conducted mainly on hotels.

According to the new standard, hotels are to be classified into seven classifications. These are – basic hotels, one-star, two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star and five-star-deluxe.

The evaluation will be conducted in 12 categories, including bedroom facilities, dining facilities, general services and bathrooms. These have a maximum score of 317, 245, 310, 200 and 168 points, respectively, out of the total 1,335 points.

Hotel qualifies to obtain a five star status if it manages to score more than 80pc of the sum total in every aspect, according to the standard. Four-star hotels must score above 70pc of the total, while three star and two star hotels needs a score point above 60pc and 50pc, respectively. Hotels scoring over 90pc qualify for a five star Deluxe grading. Read more