Ahead of the Jewish holiday season, the Tourism Ministry has decided to speed up a new hotel classification system devised in 2014 based on the European Hotel Star standard, Israel Hayom learned Thursday. According to the ministry's new regulations, hotels will be barred from independently ranking themselves, and will now have to obtain a certificate from the Tourism Ministry validating their rank prior to using it in any promotional material. Israel's hotel ranking system was established in 1992, and it essentially allowed hotels to decide on their star ranking independently, which resulted in inconsistencies in industry standards as well as disappointed costumers. Most Israeli hotels were slow to subscribe to the ministry's plan. It was only recently, after several leading hotel chains heeded the ministry's new regulations, that the process has been able to pick up speed, with more and more hotels receiving their new ranking every week. Many hotels are in the process of complying with new ministry standards, and are carrying out renovations to improve their star ranking. The new system awards hotels stars on a scale of one to five stars, with the option to receive an additional, "deluxe hotel" ranking. The ranking consists of 270 criteria, including physical properties such as room size, lobby area, and restaurants, and parameters such as quality and span of the services and amenities offered by the hotel The European Hotel Star system, is used in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, and is conducted by Austrian ranking firm Ennemoser Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH. The Tourism Ministry has invested some 4 million shekels ($1 million) in the process, which will include the initial inspection of every hotel, (estimated at thousands of shekels) and its reclassifying every three years. The ministry has also launched an aid package providing hotels with grants to make the necessary improvements to comply with the requirements of the new classification system. This will enable hotels to boost their ranking status and reach the level of their choice.
