Bahrain is planning a major overhaul of its hospitality industry with plans to introduce the new categorisation of hotels in October, said a report.

The Tourism Directorate will announce the new roadmap as part or plans to revamp the entire hospitality sector, sources told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

A new categorisation of hotels is expected to be announced in October, setting new quality standards.

This will help in a major  revamp of both tourism and hospitality industries.

The blueprint will apply to luxury four- and five-star hotels, apartments, boutiques, floating restaurants and other hospitality facilities. The new criteria will also apply to new hotels to be built in Bahrain, said the report.

The sources reported a big surge in demand for licences to construct luxury four- and five-star
hotels in view of the strict regulations enforced on three-star hotels.

Investors planning to build new luxury hotels in Bahrain will have to comply with new stringent criteria, said the Akhbar Al Khaleej report.

The regulations will include the size of rooms and beds, height of the mattresses, quality of the furniture, bed covers, pillows – even the type and size of soap used in toilets, it stated.

Existing hotels will, however, be exempted from certain criteria which concern particularly the size of rooms and reception lobbies as their redesigning and resizing would be impossible, it added.-TradeArabia News Service