Mandatory classification of hostels to pass. Hosteliers bypassed the law Hostel in non-residential premises the law

“There will be a second reading. There will be no changes other than technical ones. We will carry it out in the same edition,” one of the authors of the bill on hostels, State Duma deputy Galina Khovanskaya, told Gazeta.Ru.

She noted that the document will be considered in the lower house of parliament this year, but, however, did not specify in what time frame. The deputy also added that in the five-story buildings that may be included in the renovation program, there are practically no hostels.

Let us remember that the bill passed its first reading in May last year. He proposes to completely prohibit the use of residential premises for hotels and other accommodation facilities, the provision of hotel services and other accommodation services.

This edition caused a strong reaction from business representatives, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as the authorities of tourist regions - St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Crimea, etc.

“In its first version, the bill was quite tough, there was simply the wording “prohibit” the placement of hostels in residential buildings. This meant that everything that was in residential buildings was subject to a ban,” says Vadim Prasov, vice-president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers.

It should be noted that, according to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, residential premises are intended exclusively for the residence of citizens, regardless of whether such residence is temporary or permanent. At the same time, family law says that “the use of residential premises for professional or individual entrepreneurial activities is permitted, if this does not violate the rights and legitimate interests of other citizens, as well as the requirements that the residential premises must meet.”

In order to regulate the relationship between the owners of this kind of business and residents, a multilateral dialogue is necessary with the involvement of all interested parties: authorities, society, industry representatives, as well as the expert community, says Elena Krivenkova, Chairman of the Business Russia Committee on the Hospitality Industry.

“I don’t know how to consider the bill without amendments in the second reading. Such a law will not work, and passing a bill that cannot be implemented is another path to corruption,” says Evgeniy Nasonov, chairman of the board of the non-profit partnership League of Hostels.

In his opinion, the document in its current form actually prohibits the activities of the private sector, which is developed, for example, in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. The bill prohibits almost all temporary accommodation services, and “the adoption of the law in the first edition will cause a massive closure of such accommodation facilities,” he believes.

Residents will be asked for consent

The State Duma has prepared a package of amendments to this bill, which will give hoteliers a chance to continue their work.

Deputies Alexander Sidyakin and Pavel Kachkaev made their proposals in February of this year. Pavel Sklyanchuk, Sidyakin’s assistant, explained to Gazeta.Ru that, according to these amendments, the use of residential premises in an apartment building for the provision of hotel services is permitted, but with the consent of the general meeting of owners.

The decision is made by a majority vote of the total number of votes. It is considered rejected if at least one of the owners of the apartment adjacent to the hostel voted against its adoption or there is no evidence of proper notification of at least one of the owners of adjacent residential premises about the general meeting, the amendments say.

Also, one of the conditions is compliance with the requirements for equipping the apartment with metering devices for used utility resources.

At the same time, the owners have the right, by decision of the general meeting, to change the procedure for determining the share of mandatory expenses for the maintenance of common property, by distributing expenses among the owners in proportion to the number of residents.

In this case, the number of residents in residential premises allocated for a hotel or hostel is considered equal to the number of places for accommodation. In the absence of utility metering devices, the number of residents in the residential premises is considered equal to the number of places for accommodation.

Deputies also propose to make it impossible to provide subsidies and compensation for housing and communal services.

In April of this year, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told deputies about two options for resolving the issue. The first is to allow the creation of mini-hotels only on the first floors of apartment buildings with their own entrance and exit. The second is the possibility of obtaining written permission from all residents of the house to place a hotel there.

One way or another, for example, the Moscow City Duma believes that the rules should be very clear at the federal level, since this is a problem not only in Moscow, but also in other regions.

“We must protect residents of apartment buildings from such an unexpected and extremely unpleasant neighborhood,” says Moscow City Duma deputy Inna Svyatenko.

She points out that while hostels are located in residential premises, fire and sanitary control organizations cannot simply come in and check, since this is private property.

Gray hostels

According to Svyatenko, those hostels that are trying to be counted are not the final figure at all.

The very concept of “hostels” is not in the law; people simply rent out furnished rooms on a daily basis - the beds are placed close to each other, often even bunk, and all this is registered as an individual enterprise.

Last year was rich in news about mass inspections of hostels in preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup by Rospotrebnadzor and prosecutors, including in Moscow, where a large number are concentrated in residential buildings.

Thus, in 2015, according to the results of inspections, 25 hostels in the capital were closed, and in the past - more than 50 hostels.

Also on the website of the Moscow City Hall at the beginning of the year, information appeared that, according to the Moscow Department of Sports and Tourism, as part of the first stage of work to identify hotels and hostels violating the legislation on preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 148 “gray” ones were discovered hotels and hostels.

Meanwhile, according to Nasonov, there are about 800 hostels in Moscow, 70% of which are located in the housing stock. “In St. Petersburg, not only hostels, but also three-star hotels are located in residential buildings,” says the expert.

Killer discounts

Realtors, in turn, note that the presence of a hostel in a residential building has an extremely negative impact on the liquidity of the living space. According to Inkom-Real Estate expert Mikhail Kulikov, discounts can vary quite significantly - from a modest 10% to a killer 30%.

“The presence of a hostel in the house is a 100% reason for bargaining with the owner.

It is worth noting that in 90% of cases, owners, for obvious reasons, try by all means to hide the presence of a hostel in the house from potential buyers.

If during a purchase and sale transaction the deception is most likely to be revealed, then tenants are much more likely to fall into the trap because they do not look at the house and its surroundings so carefully,” notes managing partner of Metrium Group Maria Litinetskaya.

Mikhail Kulikov gives an example from practice - numerous unsuccessful attempts to sell an apartment in a building on one of the streets in the center of Moscow.

“Wonderful living space, wonderful intimate house, excellent location, but in the same house in the central entrance there is a hostel, by the way, with excellent characteristics and reviews. And that’s it, there is no buyer, and even a discount of about 25% compared to similar offers in the area a little less than a year ago could not correct the situation,” he says.

He believes that an accommodation facility should have a separate entrance that is open around the clock, and even more so when guests share infrastructure with residents: entrance, stairs, elevators.

However, if the authorities nevertheless ban the placement of hostels in houses, there will be no talk of rising prices, Litinetskaya is sure. According to her, most likely, buyers or renters will not be able to count on an additional discount.

“The secondary real estate market is oversaturated. Therefore, the absence of a hostel will be an additional advantage to the liquidity of the property, but not to an increase in prices,” the expert sums up.

Among all the diversity on the hotel accommodation market, hostels remain especially attractive for budget travel. Inexpensive overnight accommodation in a clean, heated room, in a cheerful company of students and tourists, has conquered the domestic temporary housing market in a matter of years. Many who want to test their strength in the hotel business turn their attention to this particular format of mini-hotels. The relatively low barrier to entry into the hostel business makes it attractive for novice hosteliers, and the popularization of budget tourism in the world promises high profitability for the establishment. The organization of the work of hostels, the legislative framework for mini-hotel services, the arrangement of premises for guests and other issues that a hostelier needs to know will be discussed in this article.

The fashion for European hostels came to us relatively recently. St. Petersburg and Moscow remain the pioneers and flagships in terms of the number of hostels in Russia. Today, these megacities have thousands of operating hostels in all corners of the city and beyond. The downside to the popularity of hostel housing is the so-called. apartment hostels, which often violate the norms of the housing code and interfere with ordinary citizens. Hostel clients scurrying around the entrance in the middle of the night, with huge bags, do not inspire confidence in residents of apartment buildings.

Other businessmen rented office space for their business that was not intended to accommodate people and did not meet the minimum sanitary and fire safety standards. Hostels often occupied basement and attic floors and warehouses. Although hostels were initially conceived as a means of budget accommodation in fairly comfortable conditions, in reality the comfort of guests was often neglected. To protect the rights of the hostel’s neighbors, as well as its guests, GOST on hostels was developed, which came into force in 2015.

A year later, the standard was supplemented by a package of necessary amendments, further limiting the activities of apartment hostels in favor of other residents of the building. The new conditions have put most hostels on the brink of closure. We will consider the main provisions and requirements of GOST, including new amendments, below.

Types of hostels

The modern classification of hostels divides them into three types:

Large hostels, designed for 50-100 or more guests. The clients of such hostels are often participants in international conferences and youth gatherings. When arriving in large groups, guests do not experience any difficulties in staying in one large room. Rally participants, for example, can continue communicating in an informal setting, which the hostel offers. Such hostels are often equipped with a conference room and are ready to offer quite a decent hotel set, in the form of restaurant services, a spa salon and a gym. City hostels of this type usually occupy entire floors, always the first ones, and in their structure they are close to traditional hotels, adjusted for shared accommodation and correspondingly low prices.
Average hostels, from 20 to 50 guests. A very promising type of hostel despite the fact that, according to the new rules, hostels can only occupy the first floors of buildings (we will explain why below). When buying premises for a hostel, taking into account all the costs of arranging it, it is wise to use the area with maximum efficiency. Sometimes medium-capacity hostels can be opened on the principle of roadside motels, but this is rare. Hostels are often used as overnight accommodation for budget tourism, and therefore accommodation within the city will be more appropriate.
Small hostels, or mini-hostels, with a capacity of up to 20 guests. Until recently, the most popular type of temporary housing. In the absence of a clear legislative framework, numerous apartment dwellers have become such hostels. With a little effort, the apartment turned into a hostel, bringing the rental price to a new level of profitability. Often the hostel apartments themselves were rented; sometimes such hostels existed only during the tourist season.

There is no need to talk about the inconvenience caused to the neighbors of such a hostel. It’s easy to imagine a flurry of indignation when an apartment on one staircase turns into a dormitory.

Sometimes apartment hostels used as guesthouses, offering overnight accommodation for only two or three guests. Is it fair to call such an establishment a hostel?

It is worth mentioning this type of hostel as a dormitory. These are hostels in which 20 or more guests simultaneously live in one room. Usually 4-8 people can live in one room, but dorms are a little cheaper than other hostels, and are almost ideal for a large company.

A question that has set many hosteliers on edge. As we said, GOST introduces several standards for hostel premises, which not all mini-hotels can comply with. So, for example, the minimum ceiling height of 2.5 m, stated in GOST, may not correspond to individual Khrushchev buildings with a height of 2.48 m.

In general, the stated standards can be called quite democratic; most residential premises easily fit into the established standards. The height of passages in corridors is rarely lower than 2.1 m, and the GOST position on the arrangement of kitchens and common rooms is purely advisory. According to the current law, the hostelier is not obliged to take care of the kitchen if catering establishments are located within walking distance from the hostel. In the realities of the city, among dozens of coffee shops and restaurants, it is impossible to find such a place.

Affects GOST and sanitary issues. According to the new amendments, a sanitary unit includes a toilet, shower and washbasin, and can serve no more than 10 guests. For thirty guests, the hostel will now need three bathrooms, or one expanded one, taking into account the standards.

The cornerstone of the latest edition was the question of transferring premises to hostels from residential to non-residential. There are a number of requirements for non-residential premises, the main of which is location on the first floors of the house and the establishment of an entrance separate from the general entrance. Such premises can only occupy the second floor if the first floor has already been converted to non-residential use. With the adoption of the amendments, most apartment hostels will be illegal. It becomes practically impossible to organize a hostel in a rented apartment, since the procedure for transferring it to a non-residential property requires the participation of the owner of the area, and in most cases the latter is not interested in such an event.

The reform in the law on temporary accommodation was the result of numerous complaints from residents about violations of order in the house by hostels. It is worth recognizing that often such complaints are quite justified. Hostel clients are mainly students and young people on vacation. Without strict internal regulations and careful control by the administrator, the hostel can easily turn into an ordinary hostel with all that it implies. And on the contrary, the respectful attitude of hostel owners towards forced neighbors allows such establishments to flourish even now, working contrary to the law.

The main rule in the work of a hostel should be the daily routine. After a certain hour, the hostel does not accept new guests, silence is observed. The hostel regime often prohibits guests from bringing guests, including for lovemaking. The soundproofing of the hostel plays a decisive role for its neighbors.

Alcohol and tobacco are prohibited in most hostels. The staircase must be kept in exemplary cleanliness and order. There are cases when hosteliers organized the renovation of the entire entrance. Good relations with neighbors are the key to long-term operation of the hostel, not marred by a series of complaints and inspections.

Internal routine will help maintain order inside the hostel itself. Strict rules guarantee a safe and comfortable stay for all guests. But sometimes the rules are specific and work more towards the image of the establishment. These include an upper limit on the age of guests. Thus, some “youth hostels” are ready to provide their comfort only to clients no older than 25 years old. Other hostels limit the maximum length of stay - a fairly common practice for budget temporary housing, allowing you to maintain this status.

To ensure the successful operation of their establishments, hostel owners often form professional associations. Hostel unions exist all over the world as it provides a number of benefits.

When traveling around the country, tourists often learn about other hostels along the route from the previous hostel. The fame of such establishments also depends on word of mouth, and hosteliers try to help each other by spreading information about other hostels.

Being part of the association, the hostel can purchase consumables, from detergents and incandescent lamps to furniture, at favorable wholesale prices.

There are large chains of hostels operating under a common franchise. By purchasing the right to use a franchise, a hostelier saves himself from a number of problems associated with promoting his establishment. Experienced specialists will help you get comfortable in this business and resolve possible legal issues. On the other hand, working as a franchise deprives your hostel of its individuality, forcing you to work according to a proven scheme.

Read about the internal structure of the hostel and how to establish a hostel, observing the latest GOST requirements, on our website.

10:48 — REGNUM

The law banning hostels in residential buildings will leave the city on the Neva without mass tourists and increase the ranks of the unemployed. To survive, entrepreneurs will have to go “into the shadows,” experts say.

There is not enough money for bribes

On Friday, May 13, the State Duma approved amendments to the Housing Code, which became known as the “law banning hostels.” The authors of the initiative, led by the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services Galina Khovanskaya We saw in hostels and mini-hotels located in apartment buildings an evil akin to flophouses. As follows from the explanatory note to the bill, the use of premises in this capacity violates the rights of the owners - neighbors. Therefore, according to the amendments, small hotels, including hostels, can be located in an apartment building only if the premises are converted into non-residential ones.

It took more than a year for the document, after all the revisions, to finally pass the first reading. And now parliamentarians are confident that it will gain legal force by July of this year. This means that entrepreneurs, in order to comply with the letter of the law, will soon have to not only transfer the premises to the non-residential category, but also equip their “temporary accommodation facility” with everything necessary to provide high-quality hotel services - from a soundproofing system to safes for jewelry. You will also have to comply with a number of other requirements of the Housing Code for the transfer of premises to the non-residential category. This will radically change the hotel services sector on all tourism fronts of the country - from Crimea to St. Petersburg.

Even for a single city on the Neva, the scale of the consequences of the adoption of the bill is difficult to overestimate. Data from reservation systems indicate that there are over 2.5 thousand hotels in St. Petersburg (including apartments for daily rental), but only about 100 of them are in non-residential buildings. About 800 hotels and small hotels are located in apartment buildings.

Thus, a huge layer of the city’s room stock risks overnight being outside the scope of the new law, she told the correspondent IA REGNUM Vice President for Public Relations of the NP "Association of Small Hotels of St. Petersburg" Tamara Builova. And not necessarily out of malicious intent. Transferring premises from residential to non-residential can cause significant difficulties, says a lawyer from the real estate and investment practice Kachkin and Partners. Andrey Kulakov.

“Thus, the Housing Code of the Russian Federation directly prohibits the transfer of residential premises to non-residential premises if there are residential premises under the converted premises. That is, the hostel should be located either on the ground floor or higher, but in this case there should be non-residential premises under it,” he explained to the correspondent IA REGNUM. — The Housing Code also contains requirements for the arrangement of a separate entrance to non-residential premises. If the hostel is located in a cultural heritage site, then the arrangement of such a separate entrance may be fundamentally impossible for reasons of preserving cultural heritage or may involve expensive procedures and lengthy approvals with the cultural heritage protection authorities.”

A significant part of hostels and super-economy class hotels, notes Tamara Builova, are located within the historical center. Therefore, the procedure for transferring such premises to the non-residential category will most likely be expensive not only in terms of reconstruction costs: they will have to be added to the average bribe size in Russia. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the officials responsible for transferring the housing stock to non-residential suddenly become rich,” notes Tamara Builova. In addition, due to the change in the status of the premises, the costs of its maintenance, utilities, and so on will increase sharply.

Apartment or business center?

In addition to the path of reconstruction and approvals, hoteliers have another option to comply with the requirements of the law: move to an existing non-residential premises. Some experts believe that the mini-hotel market in St. Petersburg will develop according to this option in the future. Although it will be problematic to implement it in the city center. However, there is another option - moving to a business center. Thus, in March, the management company NAI Becar announced the launch of a project to repurpose an empty part of the business center it manages in the city of Vyborg into a hostel.

According to the managing director of Property Management NAI Becar in St. Petersburg Natalia Skalandis, if the right concept and competent proposal is created for the owners of office centers, such projects have good prospects in tourist cities. The volume of investment in the project was stated at 1.9 million rubles, the payback period was nine months. With a planned profitability of 1 million rubles per month, the company announced a minimum cost of living per day of 400 rubles.

However, experts believe that a significant portion of current hostel owners will not be ready to bear the heavy burden of approvals and financial costs associated with relocation or reconstruction. “It seems that if the bill is adopted, many owners of hostels or hotels in residential buildings will abandon the corresponding names and simply rent out residential premises for short-term rent,” says Andrei Kulakov.

Tamara Builova confirms: some share of hostel owners will not go out of business, but will rent out “apartments” as individuals through international booking systems. “If government officials do not understand that a hostel in a residential building is the same business as a bakery, and not a drug trade or a brothel, then a Russian person will always find a way out. But the deputies themselves are pushing him towards this,” the expert notes.

There are many uncertainties about how the new law will be implemented and its consequences dealt with. “From the point of view of protecting the interests of citizens living in apartment buildings in which such hotels are located, the initiative seems justified. However, the mechanism for its implementation is not entirely clear, especially in the lowest segment of the hotel business, where the hostel consists of one apartment. It’s unclear how the line will be drawn between renting out housing for short-term rent and organizing a hostel,” says Andrey Kulakov.

Total budget losses

According to Kulakov, the initiative will be disastrous for small businesses in this industry, especially if entrepreneurs are not given a sufficient transition period to transfer premises. It is obvious that some hoteliers, perhaps a large number, will simply close down businesses that are not needed by the state. According to Tamara Builova, about 15 - 20 thousand people are employed in this sector. “Most likely, half of the players will immediately leave the market, and then a lot of people will join the army of unemployed. Imagine: as many people will be left without work as were employed at the Izhora factories at the peak of prosperity,” says the expert.

The state will not gain at all in terms of law and order, which State Duma deputies advocate. Tamara Builova noted that now the owners of hotels and hostels, as required by law, register foreign citizens with the Federal Migration Service on the day of their arrival. It is no secret that thanks to this system, law enforcement officers easily catch lawbreakers. If hostels change into “apartments”, short-term rental agreements will be concluded with guests. Individuals can register it within seven days. This only benefits trespassers seeking shelter under removable roofs.

The consequences for the hotel services market ahead of the peak season are also unpredictable. Major players may benefit, but St. Petersburg, which is now, roughly speaking, chock full of tourists from Russia and foreign countries, will lose some guests who will not be able to afford accommodation in “star” hotels. And on the eve of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the prospect of losing almost half of the hotel room stock is becoming especially acute.

It is not surprising that Smolny officials have repeatedly spoken out against the bill and even sought support, in particular, from the Ministry of Culture. “If we completely close all residential accommodation facilities, we will not only lose a large number of rooms, we will lose jobs, tax revenues to the budget, and this is a big problem for all of us. We believe that hotels should be left as non-residential properties,” said the deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg Tourism Development Committee back in January Nana Gwichia.

Thrown away like a kitten

It is noteworthy that, speaking about the effectiveness of the bill in terms of protecting the interests of ordinary owners, experts, in principle, question the theses heard from the parliamentary rostrum about the illegality of this business. Its activities are regulated by the GOST standard “Accommodation Facilities Services”, which has been in force since January last year. General requirements for hostels”, which allows organizing a mini-hotel in a residential building. Moreover: on March 3, 2016, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed its legality, refusing to satisfy the claim of a certain citizen Dyachkov, who considered the placement of a hostel in an apartment of a residential building unacceptable and violating the rights of owners.

“In light of this court decision, no new laws were required to further permit the operation of hostels in apartment buildings. A package of measures was required that would regulate what hostel owners can and cannot allow, and would allow for normal regulation of this market,” says Tamara Builova.

For example, some requirements could be implemented as part of the classification that large and small accommodation facilities need to pass in the run-up to the 2018 World Cup. As representatives of the St. Petersburg Tourism Committee have repeatedly stated, hostels located in the housing stock, along with other hotels, had to confirm their “stars” by July 2016.

And to monitor the observance of the rights of neighbors - owners, there are also every opportunity, experts say: at a minimum, citizens can always complain to the police or Rospotrebnadzor, and if those in power consider this insufficient, it is possible to involve bodies such as the housing inspection.

But the state, as the practice of fighting stalls has already shown, even in a crisis prefers to throw small businesses overboard, like a careless owner of unnecessary kittens.

Employees of the city tourism development committee themselves seemed to be a little discouraged by the fact that it was their department that was tasked with dealing with complaints from homeowners about hostels and mini-hotels.

PHOTO by Sergei GRITSKOV

Separate the bad from the good

Citizens complained to management companies and homeowners associations about noise, round-the-clock crowding, always busy elevators and broken communications. The Homeowners' Association Association of the Central District, having collected a large number of such complaints, sent them to the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Public Utilities, which preoccupied itself with writing a law directly prohibiting the opening of hostels near housing. Committee Chairman Galina Khovanskaya forwarded the appeals to Smolny. There they saw the word “hostel” on paper and decided that it was about tourism. And they sent it to the tourism committee with an order: to sort out the problem and respond to citizens in a timely manner.

So, one fine day in May, a somewhat motley company gathered in the tourism development committee: representatives of homeowners, the Housing Inspectorate, the administration of the Central District and the direct host party, chaired by the deputy head of the committee, Nana Gvichia. We gathered for a “closed working meeting”. This is exactly what the committee told the journalist who wished to attend. And they didn’t let me in.

Perhaps they understood that this committee, by definition, could not conduct any investigation of this problem. Well, it’s like instructing a wolf pack to develop a plan for the transition of this very pack to vegetarianism. The committee has its own position regarding hostels - exactly the opposite of the position of apartment residents who have such a “place of accommodation” working behind the wall (above the ceiling, under the floor).

Nana Gwichia fully met the expectations of the participants in the “closed meeting” when she began to defend the position of the tourism industry right off the bat. Summary: the city is in dire need of small accommodation facilities, it is necessary to attract tourists, it is important to support small and medium-sized businesses, the law now allows the opening of hostels in residential buildings. And in general - “they’re already working anyway”!

“We now insist that the placement of hostels in residential buildings be agreed upon with the residents,” Nana Gvichia emphasized. – On the eve of the World Cup, a decision was made: by July 1, all hotels and hostels providing hotel services must undergo classification. Whoever passes will be included in the register of accommodation venues that will be offered for booking on the days of the championship.

In its own way, the tourism committee did a very good job - it built, in its opinion, a coherent theory on how to take control of hosteliers. It's simple: check them for compliance with GOST, make a list of good ones, and close the bad ones.

And 75 cm above your head

It’s worth telling more about GOST. Citizens must know exactly what criteria the committee intends to apply. We are talking about GOST R 56184-2014, which was developed by the association of hosteliers itself, and approved by order of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology. And - attention! - which is advisory in nature. Strictly speaking, this is a multi-page definition, from which it should become clear what exactly should be called a hostel.

Interesting points about the standard area for each guest - “at least four square meters for one bed, single-tier or two-tier, including the area occupied by the bed.” And the distance from the upper bed (with a bunk arrangement) to the ceiling should be at least 75 centimeters.

Another interesting thing: “Multiple living rooms/rooms in hostels can be either shared for men and women (mixed room) or separate, at the discretion of the hostel administration.”

But this is something that directly concerns citizens who will be blessed with a hostel nearby. GOST recommends round-the-clock operation for such accommodation facilities. It is also emphasized that it is advisable to have separate parking spaces in the yard...

“We are going to check those legal entities that the tax inspectorate identified as the provision of hotel services as their type of activity, in accordance with the All-Russian Classification of Types of Economic Activities (OKVED),” said Nana Gvichia.

According to her, in parallel, the city committee for informatization is now developing a monitoring system with which the tourism committee in the future will be able to identify accommodation facilities that offer such services without being included in the classifier.

Those, as was said, will be caught on the Internet. And the committee even plans to transfer the results of this monitoring to the prosecutor’s office and district administrations. So that they take action...

“As it should be,” Gwichia concluded.

Who will close them?

The optimism of the leadership of the tourism committee was dispelled by the remark of the chairman of the HOA “Zakharyevskaya, 7” Vladimir Semenov:

– There is no need to talk about objectivity and even the very possibility of monitoring the activities of hostels. In our house, a hostel was opened on the 6th floor. Since then, the house has been a station. As a result of extensive correspondence, we received a number of remarkable responses. So, the prosecutor's office, KGIOP (our house is a monument), the administration of the Central District reported that their representatives were not allowed into the hostel - they simply did not open the door, and therefore it turned out to be impossible to check it. We, the board of the HOA, were asked to provide access to this apartment: either by going to court or in some other way... As for the classification according to OKVED... There, for example, there is a clause “activities of other places of residence”... Or “furnished rooms for rent.” The hostel can classify itself as such. And thereby generally insure yourself against any kind of inspections and monitoring. Even hypothetical...

Deputy Head of the Housing Inspectorate Yegor Tratnikov, for his part, noted that the housing inspectorate had already submitted a memo to Smolny, in which they reported on hostels where people live in bunk beds...

“This is real bedlam that creates criminal groups,” Tratnikov noted. – Use the telephones that are painted on any pole! And you will end up in the same establishment.

From further conversation (often nervous and emotional), it became clear that the management of the tourism development committee, alas, does not take into account and does not intend to take into account the fact that not a single hostel is now legal. Because, according to the totality of housing legislation and rules for the technical maintenance of residential buildings, a legally open accommodation facility must have a separate entrance, be located exclusively above non-residential premises, and acquire its own communications (for example, a separate connection to electrical networks). And if it is necessary to reconstruct the premises, then it should be carried out exclusively according to a project previously agreed upon with the district MEC.

All establishments, no matter what they are called, that do not fulfill at least one of these conditions can be closed now - according to the current legislation. True, there is no one to do this today. And it’s not clear how. The Housing Code gives district authorities the right to sue an owner who has carried out illegal redevelopment. However, you first need to make sure that such redevelopment exists. That is, the inspection needs to somehow penetrate the premises. But she doesn’t! - they are not allowed. And the law does not allow breaking in by force. So, as they say, there is no trial.

Whether the hostel passes the classification of the Tourism Development Committee or fails, its very existence does not depend on it. Moreover, the above classification, as well as entry into the all-Russian register of accommodation facilities, are purely voluntary things. Most hostels can live just fine outside of the registry, which, frankly, is just an officially created advertisement.

Walk through walls

It is still an interesting situation: the law does not allow the restoration of legality. Or even worse: to restore legitimacy, you need to circumvent the law. That is, find a way to penetrate the walls of someone else’s property, draw up an act, and even manage to do it in such a way that the owner and his lawyers do not later appeal either the act itself or the violent invasion.

– By talking about some kind of classification and compliance with existing legislation, you thereby legitimize hostels. It seems that if you fulfill some conditions specified in some law, the hostel in the front door can already be recognized as legal. We will say again and again - under no circumstances can this be done. This is the law. Leave residential buildings alone,” Svetlana Morozova, representative of the HOA Association, summed up the claims. - And further. Let's imagine that 2018 has arrived and the World Cup is starting. Who will these so-called legitimate hostels of yours primarily attract? First of all, young fans who are used to not holding back their emotions. When fan screaming starts in the house, on the staircase landings, what should the residents do? Move out of their homes? Reason with the fans?.. After all, one of the residents may try to restore order by force. Do you want to play out to a bloody showdown?

Then the meeting participants spoke completely different languages. The Tourism Committee talks about its GOST standards for hostels. Representatives of owners talk about the Housing Code and safety of living. Some want to live peacefully in their homes, others want to increase the flow of tourists...

We only agreed that it was necessary to negotiate at another level, with the participation of all interested committees, departments and inspectorates.

“It also became obvious that a separate law on the legal status of residential premises, which is being prepared by the State Duma Committee on Housing and Communal Services, is really necessary,” Gulnara Borisova, chairman of the Homeowners Association of the Central District, summed up the emotional “closed working meeting.” – It looks like we will have to bring together all the provisions of various legislative acts concerning the conditions for redevelopment of residential premises, transferring them to another status, the rights of neighboring owners, and the mode of use of housing. And – a ban on placing hotels and hostels in residential premises. Especially for those who cannot compare the content of various legislation on their own.

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Hostel

Hostel (the English word hostel is a modern hostel). From July 1, 2019, the classification of tourist facilities: hotels, hotels, etc. will begin without fail. “Stars” will be awarded to organizations that have received special accreditation. The class assignment certificate will be valid for three years from the date of its receipt.

It is strictly forbidden to work without a “star”. For violation there is a fine. Such rules will not apply to hostels in residential buildings.

The deputies decided to discuss hostels separately. “We could come to a decision that would clearly protect the rights of citizens and build a clear system for the operation of hostels,” says the head of the lower house.

The hostel is not obliged to provide residents with additional funds, but must do everything necessary for a comfortable stay. A hostel in a residential building is a new phenomenon for Russia, which came from Europe.

But many entrepreneurs have already managed to appreciate the advantages of such a business, namely:

Lack of serious investments. Having owned an apartment and equipped it with furniture, you will only have to spend money on advertising.
Fixed income. (if we exclude the seasonality of the case).

The pursuit of money has led to the appearance of houses with one bathroom for 20 people, no kitchen and several three-tier beds in one room, which violates the rights of clients; such a place cannot be called a hostel. The state is seriously thinking about taking measures against such establishments.

Hostel Law

In 2014, a unified GOST was developed on the basic requirements for hostels. The first version of the law contained many rules and regulations, but did not consider apartment hostels as a separate type. But it was apartment hostels that were gaining popularity due to their price and convenience.

Important! The opening of a hostel in an apartment building caused discontent among residents, who constantly complained about the dirt in the entrance, noise and suspicious strangers. And in 2016, a package of GOST amendments was developed.

The conflict between residents and hosteliers was resolved. At the same time, 41 hostels were closed for violating safety rules, sanitary standards and sheltering illegal migrants. Tourists breathed a sigh of relief. On March 3 of the same year, according to the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the right to place hostels in residential buildings was legally confirmed. It is now possible to open a hostel in a residential apartment building subject to certain conditions.

The area for the hostel, which is located in the housing stock, must be converted to non-residential.
The hostel must be equipped with a separate entrance.
The premises can only be located on the first floor of a residential building. Or on the second, if the first is already occupied by non-residential areas.

According to the Russian statesman in the field of Housing Policy, Galina Khovanskaya: “The main sword of Damocles that hangs over hostels now is the lack of a separate entrance as for public premises. Today, any hostel can be closed by the prosecutor's office or Rospotrebnadzor - whenever it pleases, regardless of the opinions of its neighbors. Simply due to the lack of a separate entrance.”

Below are the norms of the SES, according to which it is not at all legal to equip places for hostels:

Ground floors of the building.
Non-residential premises allocated for commercial purposes.
Cellars

Transfer to non-residential property

A package of documents required by an entrepreneur who wants to legally open a hostel:

Technical plan of the premises.
A document certifying ownership.
Conclusion of the sanitary and epidemiological station and fire inspection on the professional suitability of the site for a hostel.

Requirements for hostels

The hostel must have the following communal amenities:

Hood.
Sewerage.
Water supply.
Gas pipeline.
Electricity.

Sleeping area

The requirements for a bed in hostels are as follows:

The height of the sleeping quarters is not lower than 2.5 meters. There is at least 4 m2 of space per person including bed.
Beds are allowed with one or two tiers, excluding three or more, which are prohibited.
The length between the second tier and the ceiling is more than 75 centimeters.
The size of a single bed is 190x80 centimeters, a double bed is 190x140 centimeters.
The hostelier is not obliged to provide the client with a change of linen, but this service is quite popular, for an additional fee or not.

Toilet

The bathroom, consisting of a shower, washbasin and toilet, was provided for a maximum of ten people. Twenty residents will need two bathrooms, and 21 residents will need three.

Dining room

The canteen equipment is conditionally prescribed in the law. The hosteler can only provide the establishment with a kettle and a cooler, as required by GOST.

The owner takes care of food for clients if there is no catering service nearby.

Corridors

The height of corridors and common rooms is at least 2.1 meters. Illumination from 20 lux on the floor. Video surveillance is encouraged for guest safety.

Hostel location

It is advantageous to locate hostels near train stations or the city center. And also in places where tourists often come. It would be effective to open a hostel in former dormitory buildings. The main thing is to take into account the location of transport within walking distance. You should not choose luxury houses for a hostel. Such a solution will lead to a constant stream of complaints and conflicts. There are enough old buildings in Moscow where it is possible to rent a communal apartment and turn it into a hostel.

Bottom line

It is legal to open hostels if you follow the rules in good faith. Convert the hostel to non-residential use, provide a separate exit, select the lower floors for its location.