Mr. Tim Fenn:

Those that have not been revalued typically pay rates based on what we call a tone of the list. A town might have a hotel that was originally valued 100 years ago or so, for example. Somebody then builds a new hotel of the exact same size, with the exact same number of rooms and to the exact same specifications. This new hotel would then get the same value as the existing property. Somebody else comes along and builds a third hotel of the exact same size. This also gets a tone of the list comparative valuation. Pretty soon we might have five hotels, all valued at, for example, €2 million each. This amounts to €10 million even though the combined value of all of the properties might only come to €4 million or €5 million because there is only so much business to go around. The reality is that these hotels should be valued based on their rentable value and not on some comparative value drawn up in relation to another property. Therein lie the big differences that we in the federation see in the new system currently being rolled out. Each of those properties should be entitled a revaluation in which it would be valued on its own merits.