BRITISHhoteliers are calling for a compulsory system of hotel registration to regulate industry ‘cowboys’.
A survey of 600 British Hospitality Association members shows 73% want a statutory register that requires all hotels to reach certain minimum standards of service.
And 65% of those supporters believe a hotel should be prevented from operating if it fails the standards.
The news follows plans for an English Tourist Board conference to discuss whether the industry really wants a statutory register (Travel Weekly January 13).
The BHA, which represents 25,000 out of the 60,000 hotels in the UK, has traditionally opposed any statutory system.
But it is concerned about complaints from overseas and domestic visitors about hotel quality, particularly in London.
Chief executive Jeremy Logie said: “Clearly our members see a register as one way of ensuring that the industry’s cowboys are regulated.
“There are fears that a statutory register would introduce yet more bureaucracy in the industry.
“However, established hotels have nothing to fear, and we cannot continue to stand by and allow the industry’s good name to be harmed by those establishments that call themselves hotels, but which produce dirty, poor standard facilities and charge exorbitant prices for them.”
Logie stressed that hoteliers wanted a register which set down minimum standards, rather than a system that graded hotels.
The English Tourist Board is currently setting up a grading scheme with the RAC and AA motoring organisations – the Scottish and Welsh tourist boards run their own schemes. However, these are all voluntary.
British Incoming Tour Operators Association chief executive Richard Tobias said he was delighted by the BHA’s support for a statutory hotel register, which his organisation has been demanding for five years.
“Those who resist registration are likely to be those who are unwilling or unable to meet the standards now expected by the discerning customer,” he said.
London Tourist Board managing director Paul Hopper also welcomed the BHA’s survey, and suggested that a statutory register be piloted in London.
n The ETB conference will be held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London tomorrow.