Israeli hotels reach for the stars
Under new European system, hotels will be ranked on infrastructure, service, food and drink; Tourism Ministry urges hotels to join system.
After 22 years and countless discussions, Israel's hotel rating system is finally kicking off. The rating will be carried out by an Austrian company that won a tender issued by the Tourism Ministry.
Tourism Minister Uzi Landau has called on the country's hoteliers to join the rating system, noting that the move is the opening shot in a significant consumer process.
"The time has come to tidy up the mess and ensure that tourists and vacationers enjoy transparency and accessible and objective information, and get their money's worth," Landau said.
In the past, Israeli hotels had a mandatory rating, which was conducted by the Tourism Ministry and subsequently cancelled in 1992. Then, tourism services regulations that came into effect in 2001 created a distinction between registered and non-registered hotels. In practice, nevertheless, numerous entities continued to advertise hotels based on a star system without any official basis for the rating.
Under regulations approved last year, the hotels will be rated based on the European rating system, Hotelstars, which takes into account some 270 parameters that include data on infrastructure, level of service, food and beverages, and more, with some adjustments to fit the Israeli reality.
A hotel that chooses not to participate in the rating system will be listed as "unrated." Hotels that submit a rating request before December 4, 2014, will appear on the first rating list to be published.
The Hotelstars system is used today in 14 countries, including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. "The rating will lead to increased transparency and customer confidence, an improvement in service levels, and the implementation of uniform international standards," said Tourism Ministry Director-General Amir Halevy.
