Are you clear about what they are?
WHAT ARE HOTEL STARS?
They are an icon with which to measure the comfort and level of services that an establishment offers. Over the years it has proven the most effective and versatile of all those used , although in some markets other scales also appear, such as those of diamonds, classes (as in an airplane) and letters. However, all of them try to homogenize the criteria and apply them without taking into account the specificities of each subject to be evaluated.
In addition, the magnitudes that are valued are very objective, so those intangibles that improve a vacation, such as sympathy or good taste in decoration are not weighted . In other words, it is about achieving a series of requirements and not so much satisfying the taste or quality standards of certain experts, as is the case with Michelin stars. Here each hotel chain and each owner are the ones who focus on making each hotel soulful or practical, depending on the philosophy of each company.
WHAT ARE THEY FOR?
Since its creation, its direct objective has been to help the traveler by establishing a minimum code. What has come later (taxes, adaptation to ethical codes, etc.) are decisions made by different organizations and the hotels themselves, which, yes, may influence the final number of stars, but they are not their real use.
Hotel Alfonso XIII (Seville)
WHAT ARE THE GOVERNING CRITERIA?
All of them objectives, from measures such as the minimum square meters of each room or the size of the bathroom to the services they have, such as the minibar, the safe or the telephone.
IS A FIVE STAR IN BARCELONA THE SAME AS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS?
The great paradox that occurs in Spain is that there is no body dedicated to fixing, removing and putting the stars , but there are 17. Or what is the same, in each Autonomous Community, the tourism department sets its own rules, making the criteria differ substantially . For example, in Catalonia, a hotel that aspires to the highest category must offer local gastronomic products at its breakfast, while in the Canary Islands, the 5 Grand Luxury hotels must offer organic cotton sheets*. Within the fact that some specificities are logical due to geographical reasons, there is a certain lack of control and too many fissures that end up leaking into the consumer's 'feeling'. The CEHAT (Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation) has spent years fighting for its homogenization and on its website they offer a document detailing the minimum in Spain to obtain the stars.
Hospes Maricel (Palma de Mallorca)
IS THERE A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRICE PER ROOM AND STAR?
Here is one of the great myths . Of course, a high rating helps, but also other characteristics such as the location, the great luxury services and even the fetishism and mythology that surrounds a room. The answer, therefore, is NO since each city, region and coast has its own price conditions. depending on the tourist offer and the services that not only the hotel has, but also also surround him.
Mandarin Oriental New York (New York)
THE EXPERTS SPEAK:
Today, are the stars still a good method to qualitatively assess an establishment?
Once the determining factors of this quality scale have been analysed, new questions follow one another with the same speed with which new forums and 2.0 systems are born with which the client puts his own note . In this paradigm shift, stars are perceived as a somewhat outdated system. An opinion shared by some professionals such as Oscar González, Director of European Marketing at Iberostar Hotels & Resorts: “Currently, it is a more normative reference than a real one, since it is increasingly the evaluations of the clients themselves that help to raise or lower the classification". For his part, Jean François Koster, professor of tourism economics at the international school of Hotel Management Vatel Spain, asserts that the best evaluation method is "word of mouth, the comments on the Internet that update almost every minute the number of 'real' stars of an establishment as long as it is done from a constructive and not destructive point of view.
More cautious is Mrs. Liza Quddos, director of corporate communication for the luxury resort chain The Residence, who is committed to “a combination of both systems (the popular rating via digital platforms and the industry rating through the stars). might be the best form of validation ”.
Do you need a 'surname' -Great Urban Luxury, etc.- to clarify your position?
“The popularity and rapid growth of new independent properties makes it difficult to adjust them to the traditional luxury brand standard and that cannot be easily classified ” raises Mrs. Liza Quddos. These new categories are already a reality and, for Óscar González, “ segment help since the client has a great offer and these semantic terms or sub-brands can better adapt the choice of the product to the required standard”.
Anantara Angkor Resort & Spa (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Would it be convenient to standardize these 'surnames' and categories?
Although professionals are clear that these sub-brands are useful, Marc Serarols, Director of Upscale, Midscale Spain and LUB Portugal operations at Accor Hotels warns: “From the consumer's point of view, re-standardizing names would perhaps be committing past mistakes. Thanks to the internet, today the customer has many tools and information available to correctly classify a hotel according to their own criteria”.
Another alternative is the one followed by Iberostar by betting on its own sub-brands with which to segment the product and better target the customer: The Grand Collection, Premium Gold, Premium and Iberostar.
Do the evaluation criteria used until now continue to be or should they change?
Here is the 'crux' of the issue where professionals begin to agree more. A change is necessary, and add "criteria more in line with what today's customers demand, such as more connectivity, socially and environmentally responsible hotels ”, according to Marc Serarols. For Professor Koster, an intermediate step would have to be taken, that of "agreeing on room measurements could be a first step to standardize the criteria of each Autonomous Community".
For her part, Mrs. Liza Quddos delves into another open question, that of the category 'luxury': "it is no longer a concept of 'opulence' but of 'experience' with an emphasis that uniqueness and the way in which travelers discover hotels is what makes them relevant, which is why the evaluation criteria established should evolve benefiting from the incorporation of new evaluation criteria and online reputation ”.
Ritz by Belmond (Madrid)
For a hotel, are the stars still an essential piece of image and marketing?
However, although the paradigm shift is evident, hotels still need this categorization system. “ Hotels proudly display the stars they have on the facade of the building , in advertising, after the name, etc. In short, in all unimaginable places as small as a soap for example "says Professor Koster. An idea shared by Mrs. Quddos: “Although star ratings can vary widely, they are still an important factor for small, independent brands. giving them more credibility ”. To all this we must add other aspects, as Óscar González points out, "It is a piece that directly affects the type of product that is conceptualized, pricing, operations, positioning, etc... It is not a mere aesthetic or image decision ”.
Does the future lie in the consolidation of brands above the stars themselves?
This is the current for which two of the professionals consulted bet. Professor Koster believes that a hotel's name alone "can by itself evoke an image of prestige such as Savoy, Ritz, Waldorf Astoria , etc. In this case it is unnecessary to expose the stars. The brand has been consolidated over the years and the challenge is to maintain it over time”. An idea shared by Marc Serarols: “ what will have greater importance in the future is the brand ”.
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One & Only Hayman Island (Great Barrier Reef, Australia)