To boost services and meet international standards, hotels need a significant amount of funds, according to the president of Iran’s Hoteliers Society.
Speaking to Mehr News Agency, Jamshid Hamzehzadeh said standardization is a long process that needs money and “hotels will not be able to meet global standards without bank loans”.
He pointed to some hotels’ inability to pay their staff and said as long as financial problems persist, services cannot improve.
“Hotels have had to rely on their own finances to improve the quality of their services,” he said, noting that it is impossible to claim all standards have been met by a hotel.
Hamzehzadeh praised the efforts of some hotels to enhance services and said customer satisfaction has increased in recent years, which is evident from a decline in the number of complaints.
Speaking on the effect of standardization on hotel prices, he said, “Determining rates for hotel rooms depends on various criteria.
“Different hotels in different cities would have different tariffs and the number of stars is not the only determinant,” he said.
There are 1,100 two- to five-star hotels in Iran, of which only 35 are five-star establishments. Only 10 hotels have been built in the past few years, most of which are in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province.
Iran not only lacks topnotch hotels, but also lacks hotels of all types in general. Tehran, for instance, needs to expand its capacity to host tourists, for which 50 hotel construction projects are currently underway.
The country’s lack of lodging facilities has long been touted as a major factor hampering Iran’s efforts to become a top tourist destination. In fact, those involved in the industry have consistently called for the easing of investment regulations to attract foreign investors.
