Association Events

I've been blogging about luxury hotels slashing rates to earn customers. To compensate further for the hotel market decline, these upscale venues are now giving up their stars, according to Bloomberg News.

Stars, diamonds and other measures of quality are not standardized internationally. In the United States, travel guides generally provide rankings, with the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the Mobil Travel Guide being the most widely-recognized. As such, no hard and fast rules of rankings exist, but many have specific guidelines. The Mobil Travel Guide, for example, expects five-star hotels to have fresh flowers in guest rooms, ice buckets that are high quality (glass, metal, stone, etc.), a choice of at least two complimentary newspapers offered and distributed, and 24-hour room service, including hot food.

However, as I've blogged before, many hotel properties are eliminating extras like these in an effort to save money.

"A lot of things we all got drunk over can be eliminated and reduced to being less intrusive and hence more economical," Lewis Wolff, co-chairman of Martiz, Wolff & Co., owner of luxury hotels including a Four Seasons hotel in Toronto, told Bloomberg.

However, such cutbacks aren’t expected to impact the customer experience.

"If a five-star hotel was downgraded to a four star, most people would be just as happy," Wolff said.