The East African Community (EAC) secretariat is about to publish guidelines to be used by partner states in execution of standardization and classification of hotels and other tourist facilities.

A Rwandan official who is party to the process disclosed to East African Business Week the standards for classification criteria are expected to be out mid this month in Arusha, Tanzania.

The tourism inspection officer in charge in of infrastructure in Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN), Frank Murangwa said Rwanda was ready to implement those standards effectively this month.

The standards on which classification will base on were finalized in December last year and have been waiting for official publication by the EAC secretariat. The Standards' Criteria provides a range of options for classification from minimum standards to international star-rating techniques. Hotels will range from five-star to one-star.

"Classification is coming as an exercise that is going to raise quality in the hospitality industry. It is going to define standards for hotels and it is also very important for hoteliers in terms of marketing," Murangwa said.

The official said the exercise will help hoteliers to specify what kind of star rating they want to achieve and their target clients.

The move will also help international tourists to choose the level of accommodation facilities they need when they visit any EAC partner state. EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu stressed the EAC treaty outlines cooperation in tourism and wildlife management by all partner states.

"In order to promote the achievement of the objectives of the Community, the partner states undertake to develop a collective and coordinated approach to the development of quality accommodation and catering facilities for tourists within the Community," Mwapachu said.

"Quality is a journey without an end and I therefore urge service providers in the accommodation and catering sector to constantly utilize the EAC Standards Criteria as their guide to encourage and maintain quality standards in products and services being delivered to tourists in East Africa," he added.

The move to classify hotels and restaurants will also affect pricing of accommodation and catering facilities to ensure quality. Once the standards are in place, one will be able to attach the value of one's services and products and then the price will come alongside. In Rwanda, pricing of accommodation facilities is regulated by hotel owners, meaning that they can set prices they wish depending on demand.

The role of the government has remained that of collecting taxes from hoteliers and supervising the competition between them and customers over priced poor services and products that lack professionalism.

Though the number of hotels and rooms has been increasing dramatically year after another, service delivery has continued to diminish.If implemented, the standards will determine criteria for staffing, catering, services and physical infrastructure to ensure balance between quality, standards and pricing.

Rwanda hoteliers have welcomed the standards and say they are ready to implement them as soon as they are out. Several Rwandan institutions like Tourism Board, Private Sector Federation and Rwanda Bureau of Standards have joined efforts to make this exercise successful. The government says it is ready to spend Rwf110million to support implementation of the programme.

Each and every partner state will do its own rating based on similar standards criteria in the community. Each country has had people who were trained to be trainers in hotel assessment and classification. Rwanda seeks to train more people who will carry out hotel assessment and assist in classification to ensure smooth and timely implementation of the programme.

In other countries, Uganda carried out its hotel rating in Kampala when it was preparing to host the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) in 2007 but this one will affect the entire country. Kenya and Tanzania have also been lacking such standards but some traditional rating based on infrastructure has been done in their big cities. Burundi will also follow the suit.