What Is The Difference Between The Stars of The Hotels
The star ratings system is recognized as the yard stick for a hotel’s overall quality, internationally. The star ratings pertain to a hotel’s location, rooms, facilities, level of service, hospitality and price.
What the Stars really mean?
'More the number of stars, better is the hotel', but there isn’t any international standard for allocating these stars. Hotels are either self-assessed by the owner or they are assessed by private companies or the Government as in the United Kingdom.
A general guideline of what you can deduce from the stars allocated to the hotels are as follows-
- 1 STAR: Basic room options with general bedding and shared bathroom facilities in some cases and a vending machine to offer meals that are self-served.
- 2 STAR: Basic room options with a colour TV and an in house restaurant/bar.
- 3 STAR: Multiple room options to choose from, restaurant and gym facilities and business facilities like a conference room.
- 4 STAR: Multiple room options from basic to deluxe and even suites, in house restaurant and bar, concierge services, business facilities, banquet halls and recreational areas, swimming pool and gym.
- 5 STAR: Luxury accommodations with first class hospitality and all the above mentioned services and much more.
LOCATION plays a very important role not only in the rating but also for the pricing of a hotel. The facilities may be same in any two hotels but the star rating will strongly depend on the location of the hotel. In such a case for e.g. the hotel in the centre of London might carry a higher star rating than a hotel with equal facilities but not at a centrally placed location.
In some European countries where the hotels are assessed by the Government there are some specific requirements that the hotel has to meet to obtain a particular star rating. This includes structural requirements (like elevators and wheelchair facilities) and a set of additional facilities like a conference hall and wedding hall. The organizations responsible for assessing and rating hotels in the United Kingdom are: AA, Visit Britain, Visit Wales, Visit Scotland (These groups were formed in 2007 to create a unified and certain rating system).
For hotels assessed by the reliable rating bodies like the ones mentioned above, one can rely on the star ratings while choosing an accommodation.
