Rwanda’s joining the East African Community (EAC) means it is subject to stiff competition in almost every business operation including the hospitality industry. When it comes to hotel standardization, one really wonders whether the country’s hotel industry is ready for regional competition. As the country develops at a high rate hosting many business meetings and conferences, with other visitors spending time to track the mountain Gorillas, the nation’s hospitality facilities seem to be lagging behind in the integration process. It is rather shocking to note that the official results from our very own Rwanda Development Board (RDB) hotel rankings indicated that only two Rwandan hotels qualify for the EAC standards or can be referred to as ‘hotels’ as per the parameters used in the standardization process. According to RDB it is only the Serena Hotels and Gorillas Group of Hotels out of the country’s 167 hotels that qualify to be referred to as ‘hotels’. The rest according to the EAC standardization are not worth being called hotels. The ranking came days after the government through Rwanda Development Board (RDB) proposed that local hotels to have at least a 20 percent discount on hotel rooms for the East African Community (EAC) clients. One’s suggestion would be that the ranking calls for RDB to pursue what is happening in the hospitality industry with close attention on the challenges that hampers the sub-standard results during the ranking of our hotels. Rwanda has just joined the EAC customs union and if the the country is to compete in this sector, let there be value for money in the sense that when people pay more, they expect to get better quality services. Some one would wonder why and how this happened. While we were beginning to think that our hotels are the best in the region, we get rather disappointed when we learn at EAC level they don’t qualify. Who would ever imagine that Laico-Umubano formerly Novotel and Mille Collins did not meet the criterion of the East African Treaty Standards? One would also suggest that RDB in its move to position its self in EAC as a single tourist destination, hotel industry should focus on the quality of the rooms, the quality of services provided by hotel staff and security of guests and their property as the top priorities. EAC essential items include occupational permit, qualified and experienced management and department heads, medical examination of all workers, valid operating licenses and hotel insurance among others. According to a list of new investments from RDB, Hotels and Restaurants constitute the biggest percentage, won’t the ranking compromise the move of investing in this industry. One thing that would take time to swallow is how the local hotels have been operating or ranked, regionally, international or local ranked. Personally my perception of the local hotel industry was that it was growing at the same pace as the country’s development process. A higher pace is required. RDB should have dialogue with the industry’s stakeholders; identify the impediments and how they can be tackled. Rwanda’s hotel industry should surely benefit from the, over 100 million inhabitants of the region. Who knows what, my be the parts where we measure up is far better than where we do not, meaning it’s so easy to adjust and cope with the region’s standards. RDB says its not too late, hotel business practitioners can work it out and be graded and classified by October this year. The writer is a business writer with The New Times
