IH&RA opposes round-the-clock hotel check-in/check-out

“Once again standardisation is raising its head,” is the response of International Hotel & Restaurant (IH&RA) CEO, David McMillan, to consumer advocacy groups calling for regulation that would force hotels to offer flexible check-in and check-out times and rates for their clients.

At the last meeting of the of the International Organization for Standardization Consumer Policy Committee (ISO - COPOLCO) held in Toronto, Canada in 2005, COPOLCO called for the hotel industry to abandon its fixed check-in and check out times. As an example, instead of fixed check-in and check-out times, which invariably affect consumers adversely, a guest should be charged on a 24 hourly basis, COPOLCO says, ie check in should start from the time he/she actually checks into a hotel and finishes when he/she leaves.

All consumer groups seem to believe that such a standard policy, which should be made compulsory for the hotel industry to follow, will go a long way to protecting the interests of tourists/consumers.”

“IH&RA, serving as the industry's international watchdog, steadfastly opposes this initiative, which would have the adverse affect of harming the consumers,” says McMillan. But how?
If such a 'standard' were imposed on hotels, the immediate effect would be an increase in rates - not a decrease. This is immediately obvious to any hotelier - but not obvious to consumer groups and standards organisations. This is precisely why IH&RA opposes international standards by organisations and policy agencies that do not understand the intricacies of the hotel business.

Currently, the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) is engaged in a full blown campaign to draft 'standards for tourism services' just as they currently propose standards for consumer products like cars and dishwashing detergents…It does not work for service industries that are unique and variable depending on location and the type of clients that they serve.