Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has made public the result of the hotels classification exercise done by the state government for hotels operating in the state.
Fashola had last year inaugurated two committees-Hotel classification and grading ratification and Appeal committee and Hotel classification and grading review committee-chaired by Mr. Gbolahan Elias and Mr. Larry Segun-Lean respectively, to ensure that the hotels in the state were graded accordingly.
The governor announced the result at the weekend during the launch of the book, โLagos a visitorโs guide,โ which chronicled the location of hotels, eateries and other tourist centres in the state, held in Victoria Island axis of the state.
The governor who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, explained that the result did represent the entire hotels in state, saying โWe have graded 50 hotels in the state. They represent the first phase of the exercise.โ
Fashola said that the hotels were graded between one and five stars, noting that the classification will benefit the government and the owners of the hotels in the state.
According to him, โThe benefit of registration is immense. For instance when Lagos had the Ebola Virus Disease crisis, because we had the dataโs of the schools we were able to tackle the deadly disease within the school environment.
โIf we have the same data with hotels, we will be able to do the same. With the registration, classification and others, we would be able to provide security for any establishment in the state. We will know where such company is located and how to navigate to its location.
And if there is need to increase the facilities in such area. It will be a win-win game,โ he added.
Fashola however, warned hotels owners not to relent in upgrading their facilities, saying โWe will not stop to visit your hotels, to ensure that you conform to standards that have earned some of you the grades today.โ