Changning district police has begun regularly inspecting select budget and mid-range hotels for security problems as part of a pilot program to develop a safety rating system for local lodgings, local media reported Monday.

The system not only provides guests with a clear-cut measure of a hotel's security, but has also given police another means to crack down on criminal activity in the district's less reputable hotels.

Some cheap hotels are hotbeds for drug use and prostitution, and they offer criminals a place to hide out, a police officer told the Xinmin Evening News. The rating system aims to ensure the safety of hotel guests, while providing police with information about crime.

Police have conducted 136 inspections at the 34 hotels involved in the program since it began on March 28, the Xinmin Evening News reported. So far, 29 hotels have earned an excellent rating and four have received a rating of good.

Under the rating system, inspectors give the hotels one of four ratings: excellent, good, qualified and unqualified, which are represented through a star system. For example, excellent hotels receive four stars and unqualified hotels get none.

All of the hotels involved in the pilot program have a quality rating of three stars or less and are under the jurisdiction of the Huayang Police Station in Changning district. Each hotel is graded on seven criteria, such as guest registration, surveillance camera installation, fire safety equipment and quality of the doors and windows in the rooms.

Although the police conduct regular inspections of all 34 hotels, the lower the rating, the more often inspectors will visit. According to the report, excellent hotels get inspected once a month and good hotels are inspected twice a month. Unqualified hotels, however, have to go through inspections six times a month.

The rating and inspection system helped police catch four suspects in April accused of dealing drugs in hotels, the report said.