Hotel star ratings: To infinity and beyond

By Rajan Datar and Affan Chowdhry  BBC News Time was when a four-star rating for a hotel was the marker of sheer, unbridled luxury. Then it was five stars, then six and seven. But is anyone keeping a cap on star ratings? The great hotels that graced European capitals when they first opened were never given star ratings, but everyone knew what they stood for - luxury, opulence and privilege. When London's landmark Savoy Hotel, overlooking the Thames river, opened its doors in 1889, it boasted such remarkable features as electric lifts, "speaking tubes" to link each floor, and 67 fully plumbed bathrooms - which prompted the builder to ask: "Do you expect your guests to be amphibians?" In today's terms the equivalent features would be the infinity pool, a helicopter landing pad on the hotel roof, and a butler and Bentley at your disposal. This one goes up to seven - Milan's Galleria, home to Europe's first 7-star hotel The high-end luxury hotels, and their eye-candy images in magazines and on travel websites, are easy enough to spot. But often when it comes to booking a hotel, navigating the global hotel star rating system can be the most complicated part of a trip. That is because no such system exists. Star rating systems can vary from global region to global region, country to country, and in many cases even within countries. And there's further disarray about which star rating denotes the best of the best. The four-star ceiling of old has given way in some places to a five-star rating - the promise of ultimate luxury. But recently this has been usurped by six- and seven-star ratings for hotels in Europe and the United Arab Emirates. There are even rumours of a 10-star hotel planned for somewhere in the Middle East. But some in the industry believe this star-rating inflation is more for the benefit of the hotels than their guests. "This is only done for prestige," says Dr Ghassan Aidi, president of the International Hotels and Restaurants Association. "They want to be apart from the four or five stars existing. They call themselves six stars, seven stars, 10 stars. No such thing exists. Five stars is already too much." Click to play Click to play Rajan Datar's report for BBC World News fast:track on hotel star ratings It's an opinion backed by Margaret Bowler, who works closely with businesses and books millions of rooms around the world on their behalf. "It's totally confusing because it's very fragmented," says Ms Bowler, director of Global Hotel Relations. "It depends on which part of the world you are actually in to what the rating is, or if in fact they actually have one." Part of the problem is that no one can agree what exactly the stars represent, says Ms Bowler. In Europe stars are assigned if hotel properties have lifts and leisure facilities and not necessarily on when the property was last refurbished and its current state, she says. "You may be staying in a top-end hotel, but that may not be the experience that you actually get." Some may choose to blame the whole idea that a hotel's quality - or lack of - could be summed up in something as crude as a star rating. If that's the case, the British may have to take the rap for being one of the originators. In the UK the star rating system dates back to 1912, when the Automobile Association's secretary, Stenson Cooke, hit on the idea. He had once worked as a wine and spirit salesman and, says Simon Numphud, AA hotel services manager, "felt that the star rating of brandy would be a familiar yardstick to apply to hotels". A three-star classification system was born. British standards Today, the AA in Britain works on a five-star system. After years of confusing tourists and Britons alike, a standardised system was launched in 2007. Do the star ratings benefit the hotels more than the guests? A joint venture between the Visit Britain tourist board, and those in Scotland and Wales, and the AA, it is based on hotels volunteering to sign up to a standardised five-star system. Higher standards of cleanliness, ambience, hospitality, service and food earn more stars - with gold and silver awards for "exceptional quality" in service. France has also tried to harmonise its star rating systems. Earlier this year it introduced a new system that updated the previous standard created in 1986. A hotel could have held on to its star ratings without undertaking any renovations. Now, stars are assigned for a period of five years. But anyone booking a room in Turkey, for example, will come up against two completely different rating systems - one run by the central government and the other by local municipalities. And in the United States there are several competing systems - the American Automobile Association assigns diamonds whereas Forbes Travel assigns stars. Not surprisingly, Forbes talks up the virtues of its system and as long as travellers stick to its guides, they will get a consistent experience, says Shane O'Flaherty, chief executive of Forbes Travel. One star system "We inspect each and every hotel that's rated around the country in the exact same way. So ultimately it's perfect competition for the hotels and then ultimately it's perfect information for the consumers." Four-star standard - a new hotel in Soweto, South Africa However, Forbes also assesses rooms outside the US and its guidelines are not the same all over the world. It's something the company is trying to change. "Our ultimate goal is to create one unified star rating system out there in the world for hotels that the consumer can trust," says Mr O'Flaherty. So could this be a blueprint for a single, global hotel star standard? It's a tall order which, in some ways, gets to the heart of the issue - different cultures around the world value different things. Some countries put air-conditioning at a premium, others an ice machine on every floor. A cooked breakfast is vital for some nationalities. In France, the minimum size for a three star room is two thirds the size of one in Spain. But a compromise is perhaps emerging. Earlier this year, Mr Aidi says, seven European countries met and agreed on a standard of rating hotels. "This has more chance to succeed. We do approve, and we do agree, and we do sponsor some kind of local standard, regional standard - but not worldwide." A version of this story first appeared on fast:track on BBC World News channel.