Nine hotels in Ukraine, including four in Kyiv, claim to be awarded the highest category (the five star hotel), Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko has said.

"The commission for assigning stars to hotels not only resumes its work, but also makes it as transparent as possible. Now in Ukraine 75 hoteliers are awaiting category assignment. Most of the applications have been submitted for the first time. Four Kyiv-based establishments and five regional establishments claim for being a five star hotel," Tkachenko wrote in his Telegram channel.

The first meeting of the commission will take place on March 16.

According to the minister, at the same time, the appeals commission has begun to work, which will consider complaints about the decisions of the commission for assigning stars to hotels if the establishment does not agree with the commission's conclusions.

"The purpose of these changes was to launch the work of the commission on fundamentally new, transparent approaches to the analysis and approval of applications. After all, the categorization of accommodation facilities is, first of all, compliance with standards, improving the quality of service and, as a result, obtaining new opportunities to attract tourists," Tkachenko said.

The minister said that now out of 5,000 accommodation establishments, 196 hotels in the country have the assigned category. Some 75 categorization applications are planned to be considered weekly during March-April 2021.