Draft Regulations governing hotel categorization

Hotels themselves will estimate how many "stars" to put on the board in front of the entrance. The decision will be made easier with the form detailing the exact number of points for each service. This self-evaluation will definitely be checked by tourism inspectors whose task will be to go on the spot and see whether hotel keepers "decorated" their hotels with the right number of "stars".

These innovations are brought by the Draft Regulations governing the hotel categorization, of which authors say that the new regulations will be much stricter than those in effect at the moment. This document stipulates the same standards for both new and earlier built hotels.

The State Secretary of Tourism, Goran Petković, explains that the largest number of provisions of the Regulations in effect are dedicated to technical elements of hotels such as fire protection, width of the corridor, size of the rooms, distance from the airport... According to new Regulations, the quality of services will significantly affect the number of "stars".

- Major problem is the fact that the majority of hotels in Serbia have two "stars" and that is why they should change the structure and get, at least, one more "star", while luxury facilities should be built in the most important tourist locations - says Petković.

According to his words, what is necessary is better cooperation between hotel keepers, congress bureaus and tourism organizations in designing of the sales strategy. Between 29 and 35% of the hotel capacities are occupied, while the fixed costs require the hotel occupancy of 50% and more.