The Administrative Court of Justice has recently issued a verdict, prohibiting state administrations from establishing accommodation and lodging facilities in a bid to organize the country's hotel industry.
Many state organizations have set up lodging facilities that only host their own employees. This is considered a threat to the hotel sector that loses potential guests.
The verdict is a confirmation of an existing code on civil service management, which prohibits state-run organizations from launching accommodation and welfare facilities, training and healthcare centers, as well as sports amenities, Mehr News Agency reported.
Although the ban was already in place, it was not enforced properly.
According to Abbas Bidgoli, a deputy at Iranian Hoteliers Association, not only have organizations flouted the rules, but they have made extra efforts to develop their affiliated accommodation services over the past decade.
"We have been informed that even a university building has been repurposed into a 40-room lodging facility. In addition, the number of school-hotels is growing throughout the country," Bidgoli said, stressing that such "unfair" practices could have an adverse impact on the hotel industry.
The official added that the number of government employees is so big that if properly spread among the hotels throughout the country, they will definitely oil the wheels of the industry.
"Private hotels are almost empty of visitors while the lodging spaces owned by state-run organizations are packed with travelers," he said.
He proposed that the accommodations could be ceded to the private sector so as to offer services to a wider group of passengers.
Bidgoli noted that there are other methods of offering special services to the personnel such as the travel card scheme that was launched but abandoned later.
Travel card was proposed by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and worked as a credit card charged by employers for offering travel facilities to employees.
The card helped pay room charges in hotels across the country and was not limited to state-run lodging facilities.
