After watching,Four in a bed and Three in a bed on C4 this week some of the best B&Bs are the ones that the owners havent bothered with the rating system.
One of my best holidays was in a 2 star family owned hotel in Crete.

usually 4/5 star [or Cypriot/Greek grade A] but depends on budget and availability 3 star [cyp/greek grade B] on the whole we have been lucky [or done our research well] we have had a couple of iffy 4 star but on the other hand several brilliant 3 star, the trouble with any rating system it doesn't take into account the lowest common denominator [lazy cleaners,sullen serving staff etc] I always go by the Official rating not the TO rating as i found this worse than useless

wiz

from what everyone is writing, it seems the star rating is next to useless and tells you nothing !

Everyone is different and has different ideas about their personal heaven...

We like somewhere to be ourselves, relax, get our head down at night, have a decent meal if we choose to eat in, a beer, a pool etc..

this is what we noticed between the 2 star self catering room we were in (our personal fav) and the fancy smanshy 4 star hotel room we were put in.

Lets start at reception (as you would on a holiday), both greeted by someone with a smile on their face, however thats where the similarity stopped. In the 4 star the smile was just a front as he did very little to help out (we appreciate it was short noticed and 30 guest turning up from a cancelled flight) but trying to put a family of 5 (2 adults 3 young children) on to the 6th floor of a hotel with very low glass barriers in a room with only 2 single beds isn't much use.. he did eventually move them to a ground floor room with pull out beds etc. During this time a porter was collecting and taking the cases to the room (what a waste, we are going there anyway and they have wheels..) We then had to make our way through darkened reception and along almost pitch black corridors trying to read door numbers..
In the 2 star the smile seems to be genuine, they talk to you, tell you anything you need to know and ask about, will change money there and then etc.. they direct you to the lift opposite and you take your own cases.. the corridors have lights on and you can see your room numbers..

Next the room... in the 4 star it had free soap and shower gel (enough for a wash etc)... in the 2 star you bring your own (and as most people use specific soaps and shampoo this makes more sense).. The 4 star room had a thicker materass than the 2 star but to be honest I'd sleep on a clothes line so it didn't make a difference. The 4 star room with bathroom was small and a bit closed in for my liking.. the 2 star self catering room is massive with sofas, tables and chairs, kitchen area, bathroom and some have extra bedroom. The 4 star has hairdryer and a decent tv with lots of channels.. the 2 star has a portable with basic channels... however at home I have a giant flat screen with sky/btvision/blueray/ps3 etc so if I wanted to sit watching tv I'd stay at home...

The pool... 4 star had several bits of pools in its outdoor area, one had a swim up bar (that no one was using), a bit of a kids pool (more like a paddling pool).. a bit where you swim under a "cave" ... however you can't really let the kids use them while you sit at the side and watch as you can't see to them all.. so you either have to setup camp by one pool and make them stay in that one, or you don't set up camp at all and just keep following them about (looks good but designed by someone who has never looked after children is my guess). The 2 star has a large adult pool with all the lounging area around it and a small childrens pool at the side.. set up shop and stay there..:-)

Food now you might have noticed I'm keen on good food... the 2 star place does some really good food.. its not all like eating in a Mitchelin star restaurant but they do a good selection of meals and snacks (including the best pork chops and a weekly bbq to die for), they cook it freshly when you order it (like a restaurant) and bring it to your table (eat inside or outside by the pool on plastic tables etc).. Breakfasts are cooked freshly and brought to your table with warm toast, jam, tea/coffee, fresh orange juice etc for less than €7...they also would cook from first thing in the morning till very late at night (would happily make something at 11pm if you were hungry when arriving)...
The 4 star was a whole different world.. I stepped into this world expecting to be blown away with quality and service...Meal times are set (you know the script breakfast 7-10am... lunch 12-3 etc) The places you eat are set up like they are actually restaurants with different themes and such (think there were 2 or 3 different restaurants within the complex).. breakfast was in the Italian themed one (well its name sounded Italian, there was nothing else to suggest it).. you are shown to your table after a brief interogation about amount of people, if you wanted inside or out, smoking or not etc... and then left.. ok no one is coming back ?..You realise that inside its buffet style and you need to go and help yourself ! Hot food in covered lift up trays but a lot of the food open to flys (horrible memories of our first holiday in Turkey where we all had food poisoning came flooding back).. The quality of the produce wasn't anywhere near as good as the stuff we get in the 2 star.. bacon was badly cooked (parts burned and parts almost raw) and was that odd bacon you only get in other countries (not the proper stuff we get everywhere else in Cyprus) eggs were ok, no tomatoes so had to take some raw ones from the salad bar (salad for breakfast ?) mushrooms were in a puddle of water but tasted ok, "sausages" were those reprocessed meat hot dog things **shudders** and then a potato cake? hash brown? thing (a small patie of mash potato, coated in bread crumbs and deep fried - like you get from iceland 50 for a £1).. well not impressed... Lunch again in another restaurant on the site (this time a fish themed restaurant) same thing.. be seated.. have waiters buzzing around.. and then get up and serve yourself... again the food wasn't good.. it was ok to eat but lacked flavour and interest (white fish fillet with ouzo sauce should really have a little taste of ouze but didn't...I make better myself and I'm not working in a 4 star hotel as a chef !).... all in all give me the food in the 2 star hotel any day (even the snacks from the bakery near the 2 star hotel is more inspiring and tasty !)

The people who were about... in the 2 star we go to (this is Cyprus which is a long way and mostly expensive to get to, so its not usually the "riff raff" (as mentioned by someone else in this topic) that go there) its mostly couples, the odd family and everyone is very pleasant. Most people end up talking to each other, the staff all know you all and make the effort to talk etc.. a great friendly enviroment...
In the 4 star it seemed to be a lot of people who didn't want disturbing, most were foreign to both us and Cyprus so we couldn't have talked even if we wanted to. Business men on work paid for trips.. people who didn't look like they were on holiday (you know sat shouting at their mobile during breakfast with briefcase on table etc).. lots of people glaring as people went by... There was a family who were playing about with their children around the pool and they were the only ones who truely looked like they were on holiday !

The location - The 2 star we go to is in the middle of Pernera, about 1 minute walk from the pool to the beach. The beach is a real sand little cover (and others are very near within a few minutes walk). Plenty of shops/bars/restaurants all around the area and others easily in reach with the taxi's and buses that run. The roads aren't too busy and walking along them feels quite safe and normal....Pernera/Protaras is where the Cypriot people go on holiday, which tells you a lot about it :-)
This 4 star was in the middle of very busy Limassol, the road outside was like a 2 lane dual carriageway and too busy for wandering around. The beach from the pool area is about a 5 minute walk (across the complex, although the complex reaches the beach) and once there it was like grey builders sand and obviously a man made affair with lots of concrete jetty to keep it there... it was ok but you couldn't compare it to the beaches around Pernera and Protaras...

This is why I asked the question.. because if I paid £1000 to go to a 2 star but thought lets treat ourselves and paid £2000 to go to a 4 star instead, I would have been really really disapointed... star rating I'm now much more aware of means nothing.. !

I love the luxury of 4 and 5 star hotels where I can relax in a spa at the end of a busy day and be waited on hand and foot, taking advantage of treatments on offer and when I'm on my travels through the Far East they are usually the hotels I choose. Though I have stayed in some very dubious (probably be classed minus any stars hotels) during some of my off the beaten track trips

Usually during my short holidays within Europe I like to stay self catering and as long as the place is clean and comfortable then I'm not bothered about the stars. The main thing is to do a lot of research and read reviews and more reviews so as not to feel you have wasted your money.

Though I have stayed in some very dubious (probably be classed minus any stars hotels) during some of my off the beaten track trips

Reminds me of the Idiot Abroad with his ensuite Shed!!!

Hi Askcy,

I think that the issue here is that you are not really comparing like with like and it strikes me that you love the the 2* SC place you go and disliked the 4* because you really like

- small friendly places over large, more impersonal complexes

- the freedom and extra space that comes with a SC apartment rather than being stuck in a hotel room

- a large pool with enough space and loungers close enough to the poolside for you to keep an eye on the kids rather a choose of different types of pools within the complex

- somewhere geared up to families staying for a fortnight rather one geared up to business travellers only staying for a night or two.

- a relatively quiet location right on a nice beach rather in the centre of town.

- decent simple food from an uncomplicated menu but nicely cooked if you feel like eating in rather than a wide range of buffet food, often non-descript, for grazing from with no waiting for it to be cooked.

And I'm with you on many of those points - it's why I tend to stay in small SC set-ups too. But star ratings on the whole are about facilities not ambience and I think that you could get exactly what you are looking for and some from a small 4* boutique style hotel but you are never going to get it from a large city hotel that is geared up in the main to business travellers and located where they are looking to stay rather then families looking for a relaxing fortnight by the beach. It's horses for courses and it would be interesting to know whether any of the TOs do actually use the hotel you were put up in overnight for holidays for the UK market or did they put you there because it was convenient for the airport and it had the space at short notice for that number of families needing emergency overnight accommodation?

On the whole, I wouldn't judge all 4* hotels on the basis of this experience but it does highlight the need to research exactly what is on offer against what you want. You mightn't want that those small fiddly bits of toiletries but it's one of the facilities taken into account when deciding on star ratings. And like you, I prefer to take my own but having left all my big bottles with what was left in them with the family I'd been staying with in Santiago, it was a godsend to find that I could still have a shower using the stuff in the hotel bathroom when I had to stay overnight in Havana one time.

SM

SM probaby very true.. but the hotel is supposed to be a hotel just like the one we go to only with a better star rating.. to me that suggests it should be better.. not just have a bigger gym and spa...

I usually book 4 star minimum as they have the facilities and services i require , of course i always look at reviews to see of any recurring problems , i have booked 2 and 3 star before, mainly last minute offers and they been what i expected for the money i paid, basic adequate and comfortable . The reason i book 4 star is that i want more than basic and adequate , i don't live like that at home so why am i going to pay and spend a good day of my time travelling to live like that for a week.
I think from reading many reviews that expectations are higher when people book 4 and 5 star and quite rightly and it seems that food is usually the area where people are dissapointed, so i will book hotels that have a la carte restaurants as buffet food get quite a few negative comments.

but the hotel is supposed to be a hotel just like the one we go to only with a better star rating..

Sorry Askcy - I misunderstood, I thought that you were comparing a 2 star self-catering apartment with the hotel and different systems are used for grading self-catering accommodation compared to grading hotels.

On the other hand both do tend to be based on the physical facilities - a bigger gym and spa, more than one swimming pool, a greater choice of restaurants to eat in will result in a hotel getting a better rating. I agree with you that this doesn't mean that a stay there is a better experience which is always going to be a very subjective thing - especially if you are not interested in using those additional facilities. Whereas star ratings aim to be an objective system for assessing the range of facilities on offer, not the overall quality of the experience for the individual holidaymaker.

I really love the apartments we use on La Gomera but they aren't even 1*! They fall outside of the rating system altogether because they don't have a pool at all, no communal facilities in fact, no in-house food service on offer and the owner has never even bothered to ask for a rating. But I love the location and the large south facing balcony and the fact that I can sit there watching the world go by, just need to step across the road to the beach and have a choice of restaurants and bars within 10 mins walk or less. But these are very subjective criteria.

SM

Indeed we don't need massive facilities in the hotel as there are great restaurants/bars/pools all around the area

I think the whole point is that people understand how the star system works. If you're after all the facilities etc you'd be better off with a higher star rating but people need to realise that just because they're staying in a 4/5* it doesn't mean they're in a 'better' hotel than somebody in a 2/3*, it's just a different kind of hotel that probably suits them better.

I'm going by personal experience too Steve and I've stayed in 5 star hotels which were excellent but more often than not we stay in basic 2 or 3 star accomodation which is just as 'good' but suits us better as we like small and personal, hate the fuss of being tended hand and foot and like to dress smartly but without the dress code of long trousers and shirts every night

We dont need the facilities offered in some 4 and 5 star hotels which we have stayed in and enjoyed the holidays ( Tunisia and Rhodes ) so why pay for something you dont really want or wont use , we have chosen sc apartments again for this year , we also noticed that people seem to be a bit more friendlier in sc accommodation

We always choose SC too and always somewhere reasonably small, with a pool. The places we choose are normally 3*. I have only ever stayed for odd nights in 5* hotels or visited for a day and to be honest I wouldn't choose to stay in them for a holiday as I wouldn't use all the facilities. We don't spend that much time at the accomodation so as long as it is clean and safe that is ok.

I think star systems are a bit confusing in that people expect a 5* to be 'better' than a 3*, which isn't always the case. Also it depends on what type of holiday you are after

We actually stopped in a "4 star" hotel that the previous year we had been to as a "3 Star" hotel (in fact we had been twice before, a smallish hotel, great with the holiday reps from a certain well known company etc... but then that company pulled out and left them to get their own people in. They changed things with new entertainment (wasn't as good) and added things (like a hairdryer in the room) that increased its star rating to 4.
They had a gym - one small room in the basement with a small old multigym (to small for me to use) and a broken one, plus a table and a chair.. that was the gym
They had 3 eating areas (one poolside snack bar never open, one inside restaurant never used and the one half outside that did actually run a serve yourself buffet done by a Polish chef making bits and bobs that weren't Cypriot/English or Polish a sort of mis match of them all)
Hair dryers in room (in a drawer, old but worked)
TV in the room (hadn't had them previously but they were on a low box at the end of the beds so you could only lie on the bed to watch and then couldn't see them due to the end of the bed and your feet)
Tennis court - out the back not really maintained in anyway but you could hire the kit and go and play
Shower room - again in the basement and only a tiny room thing with a grotty shower
Pools - 2 of , one large main pool and one baby pool

etc

the place was ok but in now way any better than it had been as a 3 star.. and the year after we went to what was listed as a 2 star and that seemed to be much better !

But that is where research and reading other peoples views comes in to the equation, adequate equipment, broken furniture, activities and services advertised but not available, these will all be listed by reviewers and anyone then booking in those hotels with consistently bad reviews should be prepared for the worst.

It seems you have found your perfect holiday hotel in a 2*. I remember many years ago booking a 2* hotel in Italy that looked lovely in the brochure, it was on first impression very attractive, in a lovely area with gorgeous views of the med. After checking in to the room I found the sheets stained and dirty and the bathroom and some public areas filthy and immediately checked out and went to find another hotel (no easy thing on Saturday night in high season) The hotel I found was not even rated but was perfectly adequate for our needs. This was pre internet days so I couldn't check the original hotel out, but these days I would certainly print a review of what I found.

People have explained to you the rating system over the last few days. Your experiences of two 4* star hotels hasn't been good, but there are many 4 & 5* hotels throughout the world that are the absolute tops in luxury and service and of course there will be others that don't meet their visitors expectations. You have only to read the hotel reviews here on HT to see the variations in standards.

AS other posters have said it all depends on what you want from your holiday, we all have different ideas on what makes a good holiday and the same goes for what we need in a hotel..

Judith, yes thanks I'm seeing the full picture now.. 4 stars don't really mean much (they do for many places but its not quite the star spangled world it might appear to be at first glance).

Personally I couldn't stand people bowing and grovelling around me.. I don't get it at home, I don't expect people to do it, so it would make me annoyed and uncomfortable to be honest.. Even when in restaurants we scrape the plates on to one and make a neat pile of the things, as thats what we've been taught to do since being children ... I'm no better than anyone else working there so I don't see the point of thinking I'm a king for a week... ..

I know some people do a lot of hard work at home looking after familes (ours have grown up and moved out) so I can see that for some people being looked after for a change is a good thing.. just not my bag...

At least I've seen the "difference" between them and unless I suddenly need the extra gym/saunas/pools and extra attention, I won't be going out of my way to book them

Steve

Fair enough

No one has grovelled at my feet yet, maybe next year when I stay in the 4* that I have booked in Cape Town.

Luckily we aren't all the same. My holidays would probably not appeal to the majority of people and the holidays that many of the people on HT take would bore me silly and it's just the same with what we expect to be provided in a hotel.

Some things that change the rating of a hotel are a lot less simple than just the obvious facilities you are all looking for, such as pool, gym, spa etc. A hotel can have all of those, but if it doesn't have 24hr reception for example, it can't 'progress' as far in the ratings stakes. This is why some of the so called 3 star can be as good, or better, than ones rated higher, simply because they don't meet other criteria that wouldn't necessarily be advertised as a 'facility'.
All I ever need is clean, somewhere comfortable to sleep & the most important, the location I want. Don't give a monkeys about the stars & hate large complexes, give me a small place any time with no, or few, facilities, much more friendly & personal. I mostly end up in hotels or apts/studios with an average of 12 rooms. The only exception when I vary this a bit is on city breaks where the options available are different. SC or B&B at most, AI would be my worst nightmare anywhere other than a country that is unsafe to wander around alone &/or at night.
Just as an addtional confusion, in some countries hotels can 'unofficially' class their own star rating, also others opt out of increasing their rating for tax purposes.
Bottom line, ignore the rating & do research, research, & more research, to get the location facilities & standard you want, not what a star leads you to believe it is.