Ukraine's hotel market requires introduction of new assessment standards – head of State Tourism Agency

KYIV. Jan 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Most hotels in Ukraine operate without official categorization, while there is a steady demand on the market to introduce new assessment standards and reform the categorization process itself, according to the results of an anonymous survey conducted in December 2022 by the State Agency for Tourism Development (SADT) and Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA).

"The survey we conducted showed that 81% of hoteliers consider State Standard of Ukraine (DSTU) 4269:2003 on the classification of hotels outdated. My personal opinion, which we are now discussing in the ministry, is that the UHRA should handle the issue of categorization. Such moments should be assessed at the level of professional associations, not the state," Head of the State Agency for Tourism Development Mariana Oleskiv said during the Cold Start-2 online conference on Tuesday.

According to the survey, only 22% of respondents rated their establishment as meeting the requirements of DSTU-4269:2003 "Tourist Services. Classification of Hotels."

The majority, 61% of respondents, reported that they did not receive a certificate of assignment of a category (star), and another 9% had its term expired. 55% of the rated hotels have only one star, 25% three, 15% four, and 5% five.

Some 35% considered the DSTU outdated and they are guided by the requirements of guests and generally accepted standards. Some 22% believe that the requirements should be simplified and brought to reality. A fifth of the respondents said that their hotel meets international standards, and the DSTU requirements are outdated. For 4%, the institution meets the DSTU requirements, but they also consider the national standard to be outdated. Only 19% were not even interested in the state standard requirements.

A quarter of respondents consider it expedient to switch to European hotel rating standards for assigning "stars" without any conditions, and another third consider the transition period expedient. Only 6% believe it is better to leave everything as it is, and 14% believe it is better Ukraine has its own standards.

Among the hotels that did not pass the categorization, a significant part – 38% – said that they simply did not see the need for it, 34% had never thought about it, 20% rated the procedure as complicated, and 4% as expensive. 4% of the respondents did not know about the fact that it is forbidden to work without a category.

At the same time, most of the respondents stated the absence of a marketing component in the presence of stars. In particular, 40% reported that the presence of stars does not affect the choice of their customers. For 21%, guests often pay attention to the category, for another 21%, only foreign clients were interested.

As reported, the State Agency for Tourism Development intends to develop a reform of the categorization of hotels according to the European classification according to the Hotelstars Union (HSU) criteria.

Hotelstars Union is a European organization whose goal is to harmonize the classification of accommodations with uniform criteria and procedures to help travelers gain a common understanding of the reputation and quality of accommodation during travel planning and booking.