Features Desk: High standards offered at Midlands hotels

Most hotels and lodges in the Midlands now offer high standard accommodation and services, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA).

ZTA graded hospitality facilities at the end of last year which saw most of the hotels and lodges maintaining their standards.

There are some of the players in the hospitality industry in the province who are, however, struggling to maintain the standards due to the harsh economic environment.

ZTA has since given the struggling hotel and lodge operators to refurbish their facilities ahead of another rating exercise.

Givemore Chidzidzi, the ZTA chief operating officer, said there were a number of lodges which lost their minimum lodge ratings but pointed out that some of the things had to do with refurbishment exercises some of the lodges were carrying out.

He said: “We had a couple of lodges and hotels which fell from a no star rating for hotels and the no standard rating for lodges because of the invariables in the economy. Most could not maintain their standards because of lack of funds to upgrade their facilities while some were refurbishing their lodges and hotels.

We gave them time to complete their renovations and when they finish ZTA will come back and inspect the facilities. What we noticed in our last inspections is that operators are struggling to maintain standards mainly due to funding challenges.”

The ZTA chief operating officer said new lodges were the ones which were trying to better their standards as they are positioning themselves for market share in the cut throat industry.

The latest findings by ZTA come as rooms in the province doubled by more than 100 percent over the last three years.

Midlands now boasts of over 450 rooms as compared to about 200 rooms in 2012.