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significant loss of tourist revenue and closed businesses. These are just a couple of effects that are already being seen after two guesthouses providing quality accomodation in Muscat were told to shut down. It’s a development that has left fear rippling through the city’s Bed and Breakfasts. And one that may potentially scare off further investment in this once blooming sector of the tourist industry. It all started in early January this year. Two Muscat guesthouse owners were going about their daily task of looking after guests in their usual efficient and friendly manner - one that has earned them rave reviews on travel forums and earnt them reputations as some of the best places to stay when visiting Oman. But there was no way these hosts could know that they were about to receive a very nasty surprise. “About two months ago, at the beginning of January, the police came here,” recalls Chris Heywood of Nomad Guest House in Azaiba. “There were a lot of them. Six policemen and three officials from the Ministry of Tourism, I think. They were asking to see our passports, visitor book and receipts book.” It was the same story just down the road where another popular guesthouse was allegedly being raided by officials and police. “They told us that they needed to see the premises”, says the second owner of another popular sea front B & B and who wishes to remain anonymous. “I remember it was a very bizarre situation indeed. We were sat there having coffee and tea together. The Ministry staff were complementing us on how nice the place was and saying that they thought what we were doing for guests was great.” Then the bomb was dropped. “But we were told that we didn’t have a licence and without one we’d have to close immediately. We were shocked”. Back at the Nomad guesthouse Chris had been dealt the same blow. “They also told us that without a permit, we’d have to stop operating”. It’s now a bizarre situation that the two men and their Omani business partners find themselves in. They’re told that without a permit, their guest houses can’t stay open for business – but so far, they’ve been unable
to ascertain just how exactly to apply for a licence. Y contacted the Ministry of Tourism a number of times well in advance of going to publication to discover more about the licensing situation. We posed a number of simple questions to ascertain whether it was indeed possible for guesthouses to obtain a permit and how this could be done. We were finally informed by a Ministry spokesman that they could not provide any information on the matter. Given that his very livelihood is at stake, Chris Heywood has been in contact with the Ministry of Tourism, having both visited them in person and written a letter, to state his explicit wish to obtain a licence and to ask what procedure is to be followed. Yet, it’s a request to which he has so far been unable so to obtain a clear response. For his competition, things are even worse. “In light of everything that’s gone on we’ve actually had to close,” confirmed the second owner, his thriving business snuffed out overnight by that fateful knock on the door from Ministry officials. “We had to make alternative accomodation arrangements for all our guests and all our advance bookings right through to January 2015 - have had to be cancelled.” But these aren’t the kind of shabby unlicensed bed and breakfasts that are a blight on the accommodation landscape. Far from it. TripAdvisor reviews for the Nomad guesthouse are through the roof, with praise lavished on the high standard of accommodation. Of 106 reviews, 105 reviewed guests gave Nomad guesthouse an ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ rating, with one guest from London stating in December 2013 that: “If there was a 5*+ category, this would be in it.” Reviews for other Bed and Breakfasts in Muscat are similarly impressive with the four top spots on TripAdvisor being taken by small bed and breakfasts, rather than purpose built hotels in the same category. “I think part of the problem is that we just don’t fit into any of the Ministry of Tourism’s categories that it applies to hotels,” says Chris. For accommodation in Oman, the Ministry of Tourism divides establishments into five different categories, from one to five stars, as well as a separate category for camps. The
hotel’s star rating is based upon a number of factors, listed with the Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Classification Criteria and Standards for Hotels’. They range from the ordinary, like location and dining facilities, through to the obscure, such as the quality of wall hangings and the availability of notepads and pencils in the guest rooms. But a guesthouse typically has a small number of rooms, usually under ten and isn’t purpose built. Instead, they’re converted buildings, such as a family home. And the problem may lie in this criteria that’s used by the Ministry to classify hotels. Although Nomad offers high quality accommodation, its location prevents it from even being classified as a one star hotel. The Ministry of Tourism’s criteria for that category insists that the premises should be in a commercial, commercialresidential or tourist designated zone. In essence the guesthouses are unable to tick the administrative criteria which would enable them to be recognised as a form of accommodation. “Our guest house is in a purely residential area, and that’s why our guests like it.” Insists Chris. “Visitors don’t want to be stuck in some predetermined semi-commercial or tourist zone”. But, in light of any tangible progress and an absence of constructive help, that’s exactly an option that’s having to be considered by the second guest house owner. “We’re now even seeing if we can get this neighbourhood classed as a tourist zone.” It seems a perplexing and overly complicated situation in order to obtain a permit for a guesthouse. To add to the confusion, while Oman’s Ministry of Tourism may not have a category for this kind of accommodation, the rest of the world does. TripAdvisor, with 125 million reviews and details on 3.7 million accommodation and catering
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