How to get your hotel star classified by the Ministry of Tourism

The Ministry of Tourism classifies operating hotels as 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star or 5 star (with or without alcohol service), or 5 star deluxe, under a voluntary scheme, and approves hotel projects while they are being built. It now does this through the NIDHI+ portal, at nidhi.tourism.gov.in.

The Hotel & Restaurant Approval & Classification Committee (HRACC) inspects. For 4 star, 5 star and 5 star deluxe it is chaired by the Ministry's Additional Director General (Tourism) or a nominee, with members from FHRAI, HAI, IATO and TAAI, a hotel management institute, the regional India Tourism office and the HRACC's member secretary. For 1, 2 and 3 star it is chaired by the state's tourism secretary or director, or the regional director of India Tourism.

The Ministry says classification gives a place to stay credibility. It is not a licence to run a hotel: the Ministry says its approval is no substitute for any statutory approval.

• An operating hotel, at any time, for the star it believes it meets.
• A new hotel approved by the Ministry at the project stage, within 3 months of opening.
• For every star, at least 10 lettable rooms, all with outside windows or ventilation.
• Not a hotel letting some or all of its rooms on a time-share basis: those come under a separate scheme.
• One application at a time: several applications for the same hotel are rejected.

With fewer rooms, the Ministry has other schemes: approval as a guest house needs at least 6 lettable rooms, and the Incredible India Bed & Breakfast and Homestay scheme covers 1 to 6 (see the guide on registering a homestay in India). Heritage hotels, in buildings from before 1950, and legacy vintage hotels have their own guidelines.

The committee works in two stages: it checks that each facility on the Ministry's checklist is there, then judges how good it is. Some of what the checklist asks:

• Room size, without the bathroom: at least 120 square feet for 1 and 2 star, 130 for 3 star, 140 for 4 star and 200 for 5 star and 5 star deluxe. Single rooms may be 20 square feet smaller.
• Bathroom size: at least 30 square feet for 1 and 2 star, 36 for 3 and 4 star, and 45 for 5 star and 5 star deluxe, with some relaxation for hotels built before 1 January 2012.
• Room temperature between 20 and 28 degrees, with air-conditioning or heating as the climate and building need.
• Clean bed and bath linen daily and between guests (on alternate days in 1 and 2 star).
• Two sealed bottles of branded packaged drinking water, of at least 500 ml each, per guest per day, free.
• Lifts working around the clock in buildings higher than ground plus two floors.
• At least one room for guests with disabilities, with doors at least 90 cm wide, a ramp at the entrance, and a public restroom they can use.
• A reception staffed at least 16 hours a day, with a call service around the clock.
• Facilities to take digital payments, mandatory for every star.
• Steps to save energy and water, harvest rainwater and handle waste as the pollution control board's norms require.
• A mini fridge in the room from 3 star, and a minibar, an in-room safe and blackout curtains from 4 star; a hair dryer in the room from 3 star, and on request in 1 and 2 star.

Read the whole checklist in the guidelines before you apply. It runs from the lobby and restaurants to the kitchen, staff areas and security, and you fill it in online with the application.

The application asks for the hotel's name, address and owners (with the company's memorandum and articles, the partnership deed or the proprietor's registration), the date it opened, its distance from the airport, railway station and city centre, its site and title, its rooms and bathrooms with their sizes, public areas, facilities for guests with disabilities, eco-friendly practices, fire-fighting and security. Then the licences and NOCs, current and valid, uploaded and shown in original at the inspection:

• A trade licence to operate as a hotel, and the municipality's or corporation's certificate that it is registered as one.
• An NOC from the fire department.
• A health NOC from the municipal health officer or sanitary inspector.
• An NOC from the police.
• Consent to operate from the state pollution control board.
• A bar licence, mandatory for 4 star and 5 star with alcohol service and for 5 star deluxe.
• Land use permission, building plans sanctioned by the competent authority, the occupancy certificate, and the sewage treatment plant.
• Where they apply: the environment ministry's NOC, the Airports Authority of India's NOC near an airport, and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance.
• An affidavit on stamp paper covering all clearances, and the previous classification order if you were classified before.
• A signed pledge and undertaking for Safe & Honourable Tourism, with one focal point named among your staff, or two if you have more than 25 staff.

The Ministry doesn't accept incomplete applications.

The committee may give a lower star than you applied for, never a higher one. To change star later, you apply afresh, with the fee.

1. 1Register the hotel on NIDHI at nidhi.tourism.gov.in with “Register your unit”, as an Accommodation Unit, and wait for your state's nodal officer to verify it and email your NIDHI ID.
2. 2Sign in with “Unit Login” and apply for star classification from your dashboard.
3. 3Fill in the application and the checklist of facilities online, and upload the documents and NOCs.
4. 4Pay the fee online.
5. 5Keep the hotel ready: once you apply, the guidelines allow no request to put off the inspection, and the committee may ask to stay a night to see the service.
6. 6After the inspection, fix what the committee points out in the time it agrees with you, never more than 3 months, and upload the documents asked for.
7. 7Download the classification letter once the Ministry approves it.

Questions about 1, 2 and 3 star go to the regional director of the India Tourism office for your region; about 4 star, 5 star, 5 star deluxe and heritage, to the HRACC's member secretary at the Ministry in New Delhi.

The Ministry aims to decide every complete application within three months. Its guidelines set a time for each stage:

• Within 15 working days of a complete application and the fee's confirmation: an officer is named to chair the inspection.
• Within 40 working days of that: the inspection.
• Within 7 working days of the inspection: the report is uploaded.
• Within 12 working days of the report: the proposal goes for approval, if your documents are in order. If not, they come back to you to fix, as many times as it takes.
• Within 10 working days: the decision.
• Within 5 working days of approval: the classification letter.

Two limits run against you: three months from receiving the inspection report to upload everything it asks for, and three months at most to fix what the committee found. Miss either and the application is rejected, and you apply afresh.

• Classification lasts five years from the HRACC chairperson's approval.
• Apply to reclassify, complete, at least six months before it ends; later than that, it is treated as a new application.
• Report occupancy and digital payments online by the 20th of every month, for the month before.
• Tell the Ministry within 30 days of any change in the building plans or management, or the classification is withdrawn.
• Keep the standards every day: the committee may inspect at any time without notice.
• Train your staff in Safe & Honourable Tourism: new staff sign the pledge when they join, and the Ministry trains your focal points within six months of approval under its Capacity Building of Service Providers scheme.
• If you disagree with a decision, appeal to the Secretary (Tourism) within 30 days.

Hotels of 1 to 4 star that take a subsidy, tax benefit or other benefit from the central or a state government are locked in to their category for 8 years, so that they stay budget hotels, before they may apply to go up.

A new hotel can be approved at the project stage, from its documents, as 1 to 5 star or heritage (basic). The Ministry asks for:

• The promoters, with a short note on their business background, and the company or partnership papers.
• The site: area, title with the sale or lease deed, the land use permit for a hotel, and the distances to the station, airport and shops.
• The project: a copy of the feasibility report, the star planned, the rooms and bathrooms with sizes, public areas, facilities for guests with disabilities, eco-friendly practices, fire-fighting, security, and the date you expect to open.
• Building plans signed by the owner and the architect and approved by the competent authority, and local approvals from the municipality, the police and others such as the pollution control board, and the Airports Authority near an airport.
• The capital structure: total project cost, equity with paid-up capital, and debt with its sources.

• The approval lasts 5 years, and ends as soon as the hotel opens, even if not every room is ready. One more year may be given on genuine grounds, if you ask the HRACC chairman 3 clear months before it ends, for the full fee again.
• File quarterly progress returns online, or the approval may be withdrawn, and send the completion certificate when the building is finished.
• Upload documents in their originals; those in a local language need an English translation, certified or notarised.
• Project approval is for new hotels, not for new rooms in an existing one.

It depends on who books you. A star from the Ministry is an outside check on your rooms and service, and the Ministry says it gives credibility. It also commits you to the checklist for five years, to monthly reports, and to inspections without notice.

Whatever you decide, check how your hotel's class and facilities appear on Google and on each booking site, so guests see the same hotel everywhere.