St. Clair Soleyn, the Project Development Officer in the Ministry of Tourism,

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Hundreds of residents have been stepping forward to offer suitable accommodation for overseas delegates attending the Fourth Conference of the Small Island Developing States, according to the man in charge of allocation.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has requested interested individuals to make their properties available to host the May 27-30 conference.

St. Clair Soleyn, the Project Development Officer in the Ministry of Tourism, has reported an overwhelming response, with calls coming in almost constantly.

The response from residents has been tremendous, with many individuals responding positively to the call for providing accommodation for the anticipated 5,000 delegates who will attend the conference.

It has only been a matter of days since the Information Minister, Melfod Nicholas, announced the government’s decision to abandon the cruise ship option to host the delegates.

The Ministry of Tourism is asking these individuals to register their names so that inspection teams can visit their properties to conduct inspections.

These accommodations must be licensed and inspected to make it to the official list of properties approved by the government.

The ministry has set guidelines for all the rental properties to meet, which are the same as those that apply to all hotel properties that are inspected regularly.

For the SIDS4 conference, the ministry wants to ensure that the properties meet a standard equivalent to what obtains in a 2-Star hotel property.

Each property must have security, hot and cold running water, available internet, clean and well-maintained rooms, and provide linen and cutlery since these are short-term accommodations.

They must also have a card machine to process credit/debit card payments. The project development officer is confident that Antigua and Barbuda will meet the challenge and deliver an excellent conference for the thousands of delegates.

The ministry will have a townhall meeting next Wednesday to explain to these persons some of what they are looking for and what they expect from them.

The key areas of concern for Antigua and Barbuda as the host of SIDS4 are accommodation, health, transportation, technology, security, and involvement from NODS.

The ministry also plans to develop a special APP that delegates will be able to download to access information about Antigua and Barbuda, such as a map to get around and other pertinent information.