Visitors to P.E.I. will soon be able to check out how clean their hotel rooms are before they even step foot on the Island.

'Government spent a lot of time and money to meet this request.'— Janet Wood, Department of Tourism

The province will soon have inspection reports for all 1,600 hotels, bed and breakfasts, even campgrounds, available online.

All tourism accommodations on the Island must be licensed, and to be licensed they must be inspected. The reports contain information covering details from peeling paint on the ceiling to dirt under the sink.

The inspectors' reports were never made public until last year when CBC News filed a freedom of information request.

In October 2007, the Tourism Department delivered two full boxes to CBC. At the time, the department said it would soon put the reports online. But technical problems transferring the data delayed the project.

"Government spent a lot of time and money to meet this request," Janet Wood, manager of product development for the Department of Tourism, told CBC News last week.

"We're trying to set this site up in a professional, accessible way so that it will be easy for visitors, the media and the tourist industry to access this information."

A marketing advantage

While the department was initially reluctant to make the information public, Wood said it now sees it as an added marketing tool for P.E.I. tourism.

"I think we're going to be the first to have online inspection reports," said Wood.

"I know I received a call from Nova Scotia Bed and Breakfast Association, and they were interested in what it entailed and the possibility of requesting it being done in Nova Scotia. P.E.I. is generally the model we have now for inspection and licensing, is generally regarded as a best-practice model, and we are asked to provide advice to other provinces on a regular basis. I think we're going to be the first on this as well."

Wood said the inspection reports should be online with two weeks.