Hotel Rating Systems: Six and seven-star hotels

Six or seven stars is a joke according to travel professionals notion, since most respectable hotel rating systems do not give out a rating higher than five stars. Since few hotels can achieve the five star rating, then there should not be a rating higher than five stars.

Dubai's Burj al-Arab is an example of a popularly known "seven star" hotel. It's certainly one of the most luxurious and the tallest hotels in the world. But in reality, it is a 5 star deluxe property.

The five-star hotels is the quintessential luxury hotel, offering thrills above and beyond the actual needs of the travel. They have restaurants and night spots that are world class, with food and entertainment that draw non-guests to sample it too.

Five-star hotels also tend to have opulent and expensive decorations; fancy gyms, swimming pools and spas. Major five-star chains compete to offer the most ludicrous thrills imaginable: Loews offers dog-walking services, while Conrad will let you order from a menu of pillows. Needless to say, all this comes at a steep price, and you're unlikely to be able to justify the expense of a five-star for ordinary business travel.
The other downside to five-stardom is that hotels that can jump through all the hoops to achieve the rating are likely to be large and impersonal.

Four-star hotels

Major chains: Orient-Express Hotels, Conrad (Hilton), Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, St. Regis, Le Meridien and W (Starwood), Intercontinental, JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton (Marriott), Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, Sofitel, Four Seasons, Regent, Langham International

The four-star hotel is a good business hotel. Everything works smoothly, there's Internet in every room, a well-equipped business center, they'll arrange your airport transfer and room service is palatable and only somewhat expensive. And your boss will probably not faint when they see the bill.


Three-star hotels

Major chains: Hilton, Marriott, Novotel, Crowne Plaza (Intercontinental) Cyprus Hotels

Three-star hotels are solid but dull. Your room will have an attached bathroom and there's probably a restaurant downstairs and 24-hour reception service.


Two-star hotels

Major chains: Ibis, Mercure (two Accor hotels brands), Courtyard by Marriott, Holiday Inn Cyprus Hotels

Two stars means no-frills hotel. In most countries two stars means that your room probably has its own bathroom and there's probably a TV and telephone in your room, but rooms are bare-bones and you're unlikely to want to spend any more time than strictly necessary inside.


One-star hotels

Major chains: Comfort Inn, Motel 6, Super 8 and Etap

You don't see many of these, and with reason. One-stars are not just no-frills, but often downright dodgy: rooms are barely functional, shared bathrooms are somewhere down a corridor and the painted ladies from the all-hours karaoke bar next door dance the horizontal tango all night long in the room next to yours.

Hotel Star ratings

Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai is considered as "Seven Star." Star ratings are awarded by each country according to their own rules, and accommodations offered, the difference between a 3-star and a 4-star something as obscure as having a minibar in each room.
It's also worth noting that star ratings are often 'sticky', in the sense that once awarded they're rarely taken away: a four-star built last year is probably still pretty good, but a four-star opened in 1962 and never renovated since may well have turned into a dump.

Note also that the ratings are weakening as marketers misuse them. The original Michelin star scale for restaurants only went up to three stars, which meant restaurants worth making a special trip for.

Two stars were worth a detour, one a stop. The Mobil Travel Guide, which covers all of North America, awarded the Five Star rating to only 32 hotels in 2006, but that does not prevent dozens of hotels from claiming to be "five star". Most are more like Mobil's definition of three star "Well-appointed establishment, with full services and amenities" or four star "Outstanding-worth a special trip".

What is travel?

Travel is the change in location or place of people on a trip through the means of transport medium from one spot to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation (as part of tourism or to visit friends, family or even get away), for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc. Travel may occur by walking or human-powered mode, or through mechanical vehicles, either as private or public mode of transport.

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