November 14th, 2005, by Mary Winston Nicklin
7 Star Hotels? What’s Up with the Hotel Rating System?
A recent article in The Guardian got me thinking about the hotel rating system—those hotels that strangely surpass five stars. The best-known example worldwide? Why the seven-star, sail-shaped Burj Al Arab takes that prize. Perched on its own island, its tower soaring above the skyline, the hotel is the landmark visible for all of Dubai. What’s so special about a pad here? Personalized butler service, a laptop and private fax in every suite, an underwater seafood restaurant (reached by a simulated three-minute submarine ride), and an 18th floor spa with sweeping views of the Arabian Sea. The price tag starts at $1,000 a night.
With such over-the-top perks at luxury hotels these days (personal iPods and PSPs, and all the good stuff I’ve recently blogged about), it’s no wonder that hotel PR departments are getting creative with their rating systems. After all, there is no global, standardized rating system. Sure, different tourist boards around the world have their own ratings, and Mobil and AAA are widely known, but a universal system? Nope.
That’s pretty bogus if you ask me. What should we do about it?
Talk about landmarks and memories. Its hard to forget the publicity stunt at this hotel. During the most recent Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament, they made the famous heliport into a mini golf course complete with Tiger Woods hitting his “long drives” out into the bay. What a sight!
Mary: I understand your frustration with the rating systems … but a true standard would be hard to establihs. What is luxury to one person is often a very different experience for another. For some, a small town house hotel in London is the best thing going … but for someone else, they want 3 dining rooms and an indoor pool or they feel second class.
I’d love to hear other opinions on this topic. I can’t even come up with good names for broad categories of the different luxury hotel experiences available around the world.
Classic Luxury is probably pretty universal … but how does one describe all the new trendy design oriented boutique hotels?
And what about “Super Luxury.” Hotels like the Burj Al Arab that are truly the best out there. What do we call them?
Anyone have any ideas?
to expensive but very beautiful