SCTDA introduces a new hotel classification system

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) organised a meeting with the emirate’s hotel sector representatives to discuss an updated hotel classification system and its implementation process.

SCTDA director general HE Khalid Jasim Al Midfa said: “The new hotel classification system will be a key step towards achieving the Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021, which aims to attract more than 10 million tourists to our emirate by the year 2021. The new system, based on a new rating approach and mechanism, will set new benchmarks in quality of services provided by the hospitality sector based on visitor experiences.”

The amendments in the updated classification include several new elements to assess the facilities, ranking them by points and grades across a number of criteria. The results are evaluated from periodic inspections and experiences of guests gathered in reports provided by Olrey, the travel data provider in the Middle East, based on online visitor feedback on the hotel facilities on the world’s leading websites.

Additional points are granted for positive initiatives and additional services provided by the hotel facilities as part of the mandatory standards adopted by SCTDA in its hotel performance evaluations.

Minimum mandatory criteria has been set by SCTDA to ensure that the minimum expectation of the guest is fulfilled, while rating criteria has been included based on the state of the infrastructure, facilities and services that enhance the guest experience in an integrated manner.

The new classification features 10 designators such as beach hotel, resort hotel, business hotel, airport hotel, conventional hotel and heritage hotel, which have been added to the star rating categories based on geographical location and services provided to visitors.