The way in which hotels are awarded stars is different throughout the world. Presently there is no agreed international criteria for determining a hotel's star rating, and as a result most countries have their own private groups responsible for awarding stars. Within the United States, there are several organizations awarding stars based on their own criteria. This means that a hotel rated by the American Automobile Association (AAA) may receive a different rating from Travelocity, for example.
AAA awards diamonds instead of stars under its rating system. It does not reveal all of its criteria, but its hotel critics base their rating on 27 requirements, including cleanliness, comfort, security and safety. Hotels are rated from one to five diamonds, from "basic" to "luxurious."
Travelocity, which awards hotels stars instead of diamonds, bases its criteria on "up-to-date research conducted by Travelocity's hotel experts in accordance with industry standards. The ratings are objective evaluations of a hotel's level of comfort and style based on a number of criteria, which may include on-site inspections, post-trip customer feedback, and quality of amenities and staff."
In Europe, the Hotels, Restaurants & Cafés in Europe (HOTREC) has attempted to create a united system of classification for the European Union. HOTREC runs the HotelStars organization that comprises hotel associations from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, and provides ratings for hotels in all European countries. Hotels are rated from one to five stars based on 240 points of inspection. For hotels that rate between one and three stars, the hotel is alerted to the presence of the HOTREC reviewer, but when hotels receive ratings of four or five stars, the review is supplemented by a "mystery" visit that the hotel will not be aware of.
In the United Kingdom, hotels are rated by the Automobile Association (AA). Hotels are divided into different categories such as "country house hotel," "town house hotel" and "metro hotel," and are awarded one to five stars. The French organization Les Routiers also review hotels in the U.K. but does not award stars, instead publishes an annual guide book featuring hotels deemed to be "the best in the U.K."
Many hotels around the world have awarded themselves, or have been described as possessing, a six- or even seven-star rating by reviews. Examples include the Palazzo Versace on Australia's Gold Coast and the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa Hotel in Oman. In the case of the Palazzo Versace, the six-star rating it is often associated with does not officially exist in Australia. In Milan, Italy, the Seven Stars Galleria hotel claims to be the world's first seven-star hotel.
The Null Stern Hotel in Teufen, Switzerland, was converted from a nuclear bunker in 2009. The name means "no star" in German and is the actual name of the hotel, rather than its rating. In fact, it has been rated among the best hotels in Europe by German travel magazine Geo Saison.
