Comments by dotHOTEL

[Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Comments by dotHOTEL on the Proposed Final Applicant Guidebook

Thank you for the opportunity to file a few comments on the Proposed Final 
Applicant Guidebook. The dotHOTEL (.hotel) Top-Level Domain will be exclusively 
dedicated to hotels, their organizations and the hotel business worldwide. The 
initiative is being supported by hotel associations and hotel chains such as 
the International Hotel & Restaurant Association IH&RA, which is the only 
global business organization representing the hospitality industry worldwide 
and is officially recognized by the United Nations.
 
1.1.2.5.: Public Comment

Evaluators have to take into account public comments for each application. In 
the current version of the AGB, applicants have no opportunity to reply to 
those public comments. Since those comments could affect their application in a 
serious manner they should be able to respond.

Recommendation: The AGB should provide an opportunity for applicants to comment 
on the comments filed on their respective application. ICANN should also 
clarify which kind of comments and information will be considered relevant or 
irrelevant by the evaluators. It should also make sure that better scoring will 
not be based on the quantity of comments alone.

4.2.3., Criterion #4: Community Priority Evaluation Criteria

The Community Priority Evaluation Criteria have been devised with the goal to 
score community TLDs higher than standard TLDs with regard to the 
accountability and benefit to the respective community, and the global 
representation of the community on the Internet. The proposed Community 
Priority Evaluation scoring system does not fully support this goal, in 
particular with regard to the weight attributed to some objections from the 
community in comparison to support of big parts of the community (+/- 2 points).

Recommendation: In the Definitions and Guidelines of Criterion #4 of the AGB 
further specification of the weighting of support and opposition should be 
provided. 

Sincerely

Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek, Managing Director, dotHOTEL