Pacific International AustraliaHow hotels are rated in Australia
Are you confused about hotel star ratings like me? You're not alone. Contrary to what you might hope, a five-star rating does not guarantee luxury and a one-star hotel does not necessarily mean ordinary.
Star ratings have always been controversial and efforts to address the problem have made little headway, with most countries still falling short of a uniformly accepted system for rating hotels and other accommodation.
Australia has a well-recognised system for rating motels, guest houses and caravan parks, yet most major hotels operate outside the system, allocating their own ratings or adopting rating systems developed in other countries.
The most important thing to understand about rating systems is that they relate mostly to facilities and services rather than quality.
Facilities and services are objective criteria that can be checked off on a standardised list, while quality is subjective and therefore hard to rate Unfortunately, it is quality that matters most to hotel guests, meaning star ratings are very limited in the information they provide.
For example, a hotel that has 24- hour room service, housekeeping, a concierge service and a choice of dining facilities will almost certainly qualify for five-star status, even if it has not been refurbished for 20 years.
I recently stayed in a "five-star" hotel where the carpet was almost worn through to the floor in patches.
On the other hand, a gleaming new hotel with marble bathrooms, plasma televisions and everything that opens and shuts at the push of a button might be rated as only four-star because it chooses not to offer round the clock room service.
The other major problem with star ratings is that they can give the impression that apples can be compared with oranges.
Look on hotel booking engines and you will find five-star motels, five-star backpacker lodges and five-star caravan parks. Can these be compared with a luxurious, internationally branded hotel? Of course not.
There is a separate star rating system (stars are replaced by diamonds n some cases) for every type of accommodation and even when you have the criteria in front of you, it is confusing at best.
The Hotel industry has outgrown the traditional rating system.
In Australia Road associations (such as the NRMA), have been the custodian of star ratings and when most hotels were unbranded they did a very thorough job in grading them, but the problem is that the hotel industry has changed dramatically in past decades and travellers have new ways and tools to rate and assess hotels.
With the star and diamond rating system, it is really hard for consumers to make judgements when they read about five star motels being categorised alongside five-star hotels.
Adding to the confusion on star ratings are various online hotel booking engines that operate their own star systems.
Then there is the emergence of the "six Star" and "seven -star" hotel.
The lack of meaningful qualification of the term five-star has prompted some hotelieers to up the ante by declaring their properties to be six-star or seen-star.
In some ways these claims are probably some of the most reliable in the industry, as hotels claim such a rating only when offering ultr- luxurious accommodation and very attentive service.
It is, however only a matter of time before someone lays claim to the first eight-star hotel. It has to end somewhere.
So should we ignore star rateings altogether, and how do you find a suitable hotel?
Star ratings do serve some purpose at the lower end of the market, such as guest houses and caravan parks, as th properties are visited by assessors to check that they do have the facilities they claim.
AAA Tourism, which operates the star rating system on behalf of Australia's motoring agencies, reasse ever 12 to 15 months.
If you are looking for motels or hotels,the best bet is to stick to well-known brands or properties that you know by reputation or recommendation.
Something that has made a big difference is the ability to get on the internet and look up a hotel's facilities and services.
Most hotels also provide photographs of rooms on their websites, although you have to remember they photograph the best rooms in the best possible light, with a wide angle lens.
If you are booking your accommodation as you go, don't be afraid to ask to see the room first no hotel should object to this.
If it doesn't live up to expectation, try negotiating a discount or walk out the door and try somewhere else.
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