At last, Israel is reintroducing objective ratings for hotels.
By Nathan Jeffay
Even the most seasoned travelers can find booking hotels in Israel a shot in the dark, due to the lack of a star rating system. But that is about to change, with independent hotel inspectors expected to start work later this month, for the first time in Israeli history.
By this winter, almost all Israel hotels will have an assessment. It will be in line with the “Hotelstars” system, which has been adopted by 15 European countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Belgium, Denmark and Greece. Ennemoser, an Austrian company owned by Klaus Ennemoser, Chairman of the Austrian Hotels Association, will carry out the assessments.
Tourism Minister Uzi Landau called the development “a consumer revolution in tourism,” saying: “The time has come to bring order into the chaos and to ensure that consumers will enjoy transparency, accessible and objective information and value for money.”
The Tourism Ministry’s Deputy Director General Ahuva Zaken spoke to Jewish.Travel about the new rating system.
Jewish.Travel: How is it that Israel doesn’t have a star rating system?
Ahuva Zaken: The Tourism Minister of 20 years ago decided that we need to have free competition in the market and today’s minister feels that we should renew the system of grading, but with a difference. Instead of the Ministry of Tourism giving the grading [as it used to] it was thought best to choose an expert company to do it.
Jewish.Travel: Why was the decision taken to reintroduce ratings?
Jewish.Travel: What will be assessed?
Ahuva Zaken: Everything, from the type of pillows to how many times they change the sheets and how many rings it takes on the phone to reach reception. It will include the atmosphere you find in the hotel, how people greet you when you walk in to reception and how quickly you receive services.
Jewish.Travel: Will the criteria for assessment be exactly the same as in Europe?
Ahuva Zaken: The reason for this is to increase the satisfaction of tourists and create a situation whereby foreign visitors will be able to have the same expectations regarding hotels that they have in Europe.
Jewish.Travel: What will be assessed?
Ahuva Zaken: Everything, from the type of pillows to how many times they change the sheets and how many rings it takes on the phone to reach reception. It will include the atmosphere you find in the hotel, how people greet you when you walk in to reception and how quickly you receive services.
Jewish.Travel: Will the criteria for assessment be exactly the same as in Europe?
Ahuva Zaken: When we received approval from Hotelstars we asked to make some changes. We couldn’t take all 270 criteria and copy them as they are. One change was related to kashrut. Another was that in Europe it’s important to have a heated towel rail but it isn’t in Israel. But in Israel, having a pool is far more important.
Jewish.Travel: Some would say that with visitor review sites like Tripadvisor thriving, star ratings have become something of an irrelevance, and Israel’s decision to return to them is a strange one. What do you think?
Ahuva Zaken: I completely disagree because it’s not only Israel that has decided to go ahead with this grading. It’s not instead of Tripadvisor; it complements it. This is according to set criteria, while Tripadvisor is peoples’ experiences. People make use of both.