Accommodation service requirements are planned to be alleviated
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is currently reviewing requirements for the provision of accommodation services and wants to simplify them. The Chamber considers it reasonable to simplify the requirements, because at the moment the sector is over-regulated, creates excessive bureaucracy for businesses and partly does not meet the needs of accommodation establishments and their clients.
The requirements for providing accommodation services are too complex
On the basis of the feedback received from the accommodation establishments, we submitted several proposals to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to simplify the requirements related to the provision of accommodation services. Members' feedback showed that there are currently many legal requirements that are not needed or should be formulated in a more general form.
For example, the legislation today states that towels used in accommodation establishments must have a minimum size of 40 × 60 cm and bath towels with a minimum size of 65 × 130 cm. Accommodation establishments are also provided with a specific list of furniture items that must be in the accommodation room. In addition, the size of the items is very accurately indicated, for example the pillow must be at least 40 × 50 cm per bed place. So detailed regulation is certainly not reasonable.
Additional requirements have been set for each type of accommodation establishment. For example, mandatory services provided by the hotel include the possibility of receiving a fax and sending and receiving an e-mail. In addition, the regulation states that staff serving hotel guests must wear a uniform and preferably a tag with the name and position. The requirements of such detail are certainly no longer essential today.
In a letter sent to the Ministry, the Chamber of Commerce also pointed out that the legislation regulating accommodation services should not restrict the provision of accommodation. This includes, for example, overnight stays in forest bunkers, ice huts, Viking wooden huts, underground caves, snow caves and more.
The Ministry plans to develop amendments to legislation related to the provision of accommodation services by the second half of 2019.