The Department of Tourism is promoting its “free grading” service, solving a problem that nobody has anymore. It’s time to free the tourism market.
Back in the day, it was hard to decide where to spend your holiday or business trip. The only information available about hotels or guest houses was the information that they themselves provided in advertising or tourism directories.
Governments the world over would establish rules for health, safety and mandatory facilities, and institute a grading system that awarded hospitality businesses a “star rating”. This was supposed to give travellers some indication of the quality of service they could expect from a host.
They weren’t particularly useful. Site inspections were infrequent. The star rating didn’t so much indicate quality as provide a checklist of facilities and services that were available. These amenities might not be relevant for all visitors, and in fact, most people have no idea what the difference is between, say, a three-star guest house and a five-star guest house, or what the difference is between a hotel and a guest house that both get four stars.
Star ratings
Did you know that to meet the three-star requirement, guests must have a lockable door that the staff cannot override (and that consequently, a two-star facility’s doors are not secure)? Did you know that the simplistic star rating goes into excruciating detail on bed sizes, linen availability, hygienic sealing of extra bedding, the number and comfort of chairs provided in the room, the provision of adequate hanging space for full-length clothing, whether a twin-bed room also has two bedside lights, how many television channels are available (free-to-air only for two stars, nine for three stars, twelve for four stars), whether there is a mirror in close proximity to a plug point, whether drinking glasses are available… the list is endless. For the 160-page grading criteria document, see here.
In short, the grading system is perfectly useless. It doesn’t explain what exactly the stars indicate, and doesn’t say anything at all about the quality of the amenities that are available.
Does anyone actually know how many stars are required to offer that plug point in close proximity to a mirror? (It’s three, by the way).
No longer a problem
This used to be a problem, way back when. Back here in the 21st century, however, it is no longer a problem. Why not? Because nobody cares about grading stars, and everyone uses online platforms that not only set and police their own criteria for participating accommodation venues, but also encourage guests to review hospitality venues.
The government-run grading system and government-policed health and safety rules are obsolete. They serve no purpose, except as a barrier to entry into the market for would-be providers of tourist accommodation.
This is why traditional hotels, guest houses, lodges, hostels, and so on (there are 20 officially sanctioned varieties of accommodation) are adamant that the government enforce the rules and regulations (with the associated taxes) on the new generation of convenient online short-term accommodation providers.
Complying with government regulations costs them money, and they understandably want a level playing field.
Self-regulating
Yet the regulations they have always followed are no longer necessary. Online platforms are self-regulating. Would-be guests can look up exactly what facilities a venue has, and read reviews to discover what facilities are lacking and whether the venue offers adequate quality for the price.
Need a carport, or wheelchair accessibility, or a shoe-shine machine? The online listing will explain it all. Need nine or 12 channels of television? No, I thought not.
Bad establishments will not be on the popular platforms for long. Conversely, accommodation venues can also review and if necessary exclude bad guests, so the self-policing goes both ways.
Even venues that are not on accommodation aggregation sites like AirBnB or booking.com are subject to regulation by guests themselves, who can post reviews on any number of websites, from Google Maps to Yelp to Hello Peter. The playing field can be level, and the rules much more amenable to both accommodation providers and travellers, if the government simply steps out of the way.
Instead, the Tourism Department on Wednesday launched a “free grading” promotion, valid for the duration of February, trying to convince accommodation providers to take for free what they certainly don’t want to pay for. (Remaining graded is a subscription service, however.)
Grading is also a way for the government to impose new rules and regulations, such as requiring accessibility and “sustainability” measures, which some guests might need, but others might not care about.
Gross violation
At the same time, the Department of Tourism is working on policies to extend rules and regulations that apply to formal, registered tourism facilities, to hitherto unregistered short-term letting establishments that operate online.
Worst of all, they’re planning to restrict the number of nights such establishments may be rented out through online platforms in a year.
This is a gross violation of the right of property owners to use and dispose of their private property as they see fit.
Doing so would serve the traditional hospitality industry very well, because they don’t like the competition. Hotels would love it if holiday makers returned to their dreary, over-carpeted, institutional halls in their droves, instead of seeking out charming, convenient and less expensive bed-and-breakfasts with great reviews online.
The thing is, the Department of Tourism does not exist to protect old-school incumbents against upstart competition.
Residents vs tourists
Another argument that is often made is that the conversion of granny flats, rooms or entire homes into short-term rental accommodation for holiday and business travellers is restricting the availability of long-term rentals for residents.
This is true, but again, the government has no right to order people not to use their own property to make as much profit as they can.
If people want to live in ideal holiday locations on a long-term basis, then they ought to pay what tourists are prepared to pay. If not, they should select more modest housing that is not more efficiently used to accommodate tourists.
By the same argument, government ought to ban beach-front hotels, on the grounds that ordinary residents should have better access to beach-front properties. It’s absurd to restrict the tourism business because ordinary people want budget rentals in touristy areas.
Even in good tourism locations, there are plenty of homeowners who don’t want to deal with short-term letting, and prefer to let long-term. I’ve lived in a tourist town for 15 years. Sure, it’s hard to find well-priced rental housing, but that’s the price of living in a lovely location.
Let the market allocate assets in the most efficient way possible (and by “efficient”, I mean “profitable”).
Let it go
Placing artificial and fundamentally unfair restrictions on how people are allowed to use their own property is not a solution to anyone’s problems other than those of commercial rivals.
Let it go, Tourism.
Government regulation and grading are 20th century solutions to 20th century problems.
Rather spend your energy helping old-school incumbent operators to adapt to 21st century business models that don’t rely on inefficient and opaque government grading systems, and enable far more effective and efficient quality control, of both accommodation and guests, without the costly burden of unnecessary regulation and taxes.
[Image: Tourist Grading Council logo]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
f you like what you have just read, support the Daily Friend.