House stops new ‘star’ rating of hotels, resorts

Saying that the hotel and resort rating program is flawed, the House Committee on Tourism has directed the Department of Tourism (DOT) to refrain from implementing the “star rating” program pending the submission of a revised accreditation standards to the House body.

During a hearing, the House panel unanimously approved a motion made by Cebu Rep. Raul del Mar asking the DOT to hold in abeyance further the implementation of the project subject to its fulfillment of the condition.

Supported by another Cebu solon, Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, the motion was approved after lawmakers were convinced that there was indeed a strong reason to further study the hotel and resort rating project.

Robert Lim Joseph, president of the Network of Independent Travel and Allied Services Philippines (NITAS) and Emmanuel Gonzalez, managing director of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, pointed out the serious issues they discovered in the project. Both were at yesterday’s hearing.

Del Mar moved to suspend the star rating system after being convinced that the issues raised by tourism industry stakeholders were legitimate and a cause for concern.

On the other hand, Garcia said the implementation of the start rating system could be “a waste of time, efforts and government funds” as she noted that objectivity of star evaluators could be questioned.

“I agree with Congressman Del Mar’s motion that unless the standards are changed to a measurable and objective manner, there is no way this hotel rating system could be defended in a court of law,” Garcia said.

The congresswoman cited several examples in the metrics being used by hotel rating auditors which she said are subjective, impossible to measure and open to the assessors’ wise discretion. “There are very serious questions and reservations on the standards, the accuracy of the judgment of the assessors given the limited time (they check on the hotels and resorts), and the wide latitude given to them,” she said.

Committee Chair Relampagos agreed with Garcia’s explanation, adding that there is a need to improve the rating system so that subjective judgment will not be the source of a rating.