With so many things to consider, hotel rankings can be very confusing.
This is how some of the world’s most popular booking sites and travel organizations define a five-star hotel.
According to theirratings guidelines, five-star hotels usually have gourmet dining, luxury spas, and more.
Credit: Sivan Askayo
AAA
Americas go-to rating system is run by the American Automobile Association (AAA).
AAA uses aDiamond Rating system, with five diamonds being the highest designation a hotel can achieve.
to assign ratings to hotels, inspectors visit these properties unannounced.
Christopher Churchill
The Hotelstars Union (part of international hospitality organizaiton HOTREC) oversees hotel ratings in 17 European countries.
France has a five-star rating system, but they have one level higher called “the palace distinction”.
Five stars signifify luxurious rooms,high quality food, and multilingual service.
Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
Australia
Australians have a country-wide system called Star Ratings that judges hotels onobjective metrics.
Unfortunately, manyluxury hotelshave removed themselves from this rating system.
There are several other factors to note when booking a hotel in Italy.
Courtesy of Luxury Lodges of Australia
A one-star hotel doesnt guarantee you a bathroom, only one bathroom per three rooms.
Hotels are only required to change towels and linens once every three days.
To crack down on corruption, the Chinese government banned government officials from staying in five-star hotels.
That ban caused a bevy of luxury hotels in China tovoluntarily downgrade their star statusto continue accommodating government employees.
