Joint Workgroup to Determine Hotel Star Ratings

A workgroup comprising officials from Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and members of Iranian Hoteliers Association will be formed to assess hotel services and set star ratings.

This was announced in a meeting at the organization's headquarters in Tehran, where Morteza Rahmani Movahed, ICHHTO's tourism deputy, met with hoteliers.

Describing hotels as the "oldest link in the tourism chain", Movahed said the hospitality sector in Iran "has developed very slowly", according to a report on the organization's website.

The joint workgroup is expected to align tourism officials and hotel owners' views, and help accelerate the sector's development.

Iran's campaign to bring the quality of hotels up to global standards has been a matter of dispute between hoteliers and tourism authorities for over a decade.

Hotel owners complain about the high costs of standardization and consultancy from relevant firms. They also frequently demand that the hotel rates be liberalized.

However, ICHHTO opposes the deregulation of prices, arguing that hotel services must first reach international standards.

Hoteliers and tourism officials have often clashed on issues ranging from room rates to service quality, but the crux of their problem is that hotel owners believe ICHHTO wants to exert full control over the industry.

Observers believe once foreign hotel chains establish a foothold in Iran, domestic hotels will have no choice but to catch up with foreign competitors, or perish.