Marriage Certification in Egypt

[Elena4390]

I started listing in Egypt, Red sea region recently,  everything is amazing the region is blessed  with nature and spectacular location, but we're facing a particular repeated  issue of the local nationals couples and mixed nationality couples if it includes at least one Egyptian national; they have to have an official marriage certificate issued by the civil status authority of the country, even common law contracts (known as Orfi around the country) does not seem so legal to the Egyptian authorities. 

I do understand the inconvenience and the privacy sensitivity of the topic from a standpoint of the guest, especially considering the local culture, but also this is a Country Rules and Regulations and I want to maintain the best service and respect to my guests' privacy, and not to be by any means under a law breach or  being on the wrong side of the business; especially sometimes the tourism sector sometimes sends kind of audits and inspections to check upon the documents of the guests.

One more significant reason why Iam raising this issue, that is as a big percentage of the stays and the potential stays are from the local couples and the mixed nationality with an Egyptian national couples, and I have, in so many cases, to reject their requests and enquiries because of this issue.

So, I appreciate if any similar experiences or valuable advice around the topic.

Kind Regards,

Elena

[Helen3]

Hi @Elena4390 

Do you make this clear up front in your listing and in your house rules that this a legal requirement ? 

[Elena4390]

I did make it clear in the ' house rules' section and still whenever I get any enquiry about it, I make it clear that we will not be able to check-in the couple without this certificate present with them or at least this common law contract, and yet I get people ignoring this completely 

[Helen3]

Then as I suggested in my earlier post I suggest you also make it clear up front in the listing too @Elena4390 

[Elena4390]

Thank you for your support Helen, Do you mean to add it to the 'Automated massages' or something ?

[Rebecca]

Hello @Elena4390 

I'm tagging @Helen3 here so they receive a notification of your message. This ensures that they get a notification that you've replied to them specifically 🤗

Quick tip: if you type "@" and then the username, this will tag the member that you're replying to.

[Elena4390]

Yes I did, and even to make it more specific and clear I added that 'Unfortunately we will not be able to check you in, if the certificate or a copy of it is present with you'

[Rebecca]

Hello @Elena4390, 

Thank you for explaining the challenge you're facing in such detail!

It sounds like a tricky one, so in addition to @Helen3's suggestion, I wanted to mention in some of our other hosts in Egypt:

@Abdelkader21 @Amr471 @Alsherif0 @Michel7677 @Eman1482 @Abdelkader21 @Amira326 @Mohamed1241 @Ahmed957  - do you have any advice for Elena, based on your experience?

Looking forward to reading your insights. 😊

[Elena4390]

thank you so much for raising the issue, I think it will be really helpful to know how we can make it clear the most to our guests that this is a country rules and regulations and not our preference to enforce any privacy violation