Hotel rating styles vary
The Hampton Inn and Suites in Chicago is two city blocks off the Magnificent Mile.
It is not a luxury hotel. But guests get a free hot breakfast and free Internet.
Its star rating is … confusing.
AAA gives it three diamonds. Mobil gives it two stars. Yahoo, Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz all give it three stars.
But travelers reviewing the hotel on Trip Advisor give it a super four and a half out of five.
Who’s right?
“AAA and Mobil are a benchmark, but they are really just a guide for the potential tourist,” says Brian Cooper, senior director of product and service development for the Hampton Inn brand. “Sometimes more stars just mean more amenities. They don’t measure service, warmth or friendliness.”
With 98 percent of travelers now using the Internet to book lodging reservations, those little stars or diamonds can have a big impact on your choice. But be careful. Not all ratings systems are alike.
Only AAA and Mobil visit every property they rate. AAA won’t rate a property unless it meets 27 basic lodging requirements – including a phone in the room, double door locks, smoke detectors and clean sheets.
Then it sends one of its 65 full-time inspectors to judge the property in an unannounced visit. It rates the place “approved,” or does further judging to give it a one- to five-diamond rating based on a 300-point amenity and service scale.
Mobil rates 7,000 hotels with random facility visits, judging everything from decor and turndown service to whether housekeeping will give you an emery board or arrange a shoe shine. Higher-end hotels are anonymously rated on 500 service indicators by inspectors who stay at least two nights. Hotels get higher ratings for 24-hour room service, fitness centers, valet parking, pools, landscaped grounds and outstanding service.
Other hotel rating systems use hotel self-reports, customer feedback and other data. Northstar Travel Media, which provides ratings for 44,000 hotels worldwide to both Travelocity (as of February) and Yahoo Travel, bases its rating system on a secret combination of factors, although not personal visits.
To test the system, we chose six popular Chicago hotels at various price levels, then compared AAA and Mobil ratings with the ratings at several travel Web sites and with Trip Advisor, a Web site that posts consumer hotel reviews.
The ratings varied, but usually not more than one star. Finicky Mobil tends to rate lower than other services, while Orbitz rates on the high side. Travelers themselves rated low-rated hotels higher than the pros – but rated high-rated hotels lower than the pros.