Why ratings still matter Formal hotel ratings of stars and diamonds still carry a lot of weight, even in the Yelp era
Sitting on a couch in a nook of The Peninsula Chicago’s lobby, the man in the brown sports coat could be anyone — local, tourist, salesman.
It’s a chameleonlike quality that comes in handy: He’s Inspector 40, an inspector with AAA, and his job is to visit hotels and restaurants — often anonymously — and score them according to the company’s Diamond-rating system.
In the last three decades, Inspector 40 has doled out enough diamonds to fill a mine. Last year alone, he inspected 664 hotels in Illinois, Wisconsin and Northern California.
Today, I’ve been invited along because I’m curious about the value of legacy rating systems, such as AAA and Forbes Travel Guide, at a time when everyone can be a critic on Yelp, TripAdvisor and other sites. I’d wager that few, if any, on Yelp and TripAdvisor have the training and experience of Inspector 40. variety of guest rooms (king, double, junior suite), into a business center and event space, around the gym, pool and spa and into the men’s locker room.
I’d expected pursed lips and a detached demeanor from a professional hotel critic, but I find Inspector 40 is approachable and quite complimentary while being thorough and focused.
In a bathroom: “Great lighting. I don’t wear makeup, but if I did, I imagine I could do it here.”
In a guest room: “All these light fabrics. I can just say, ‘Congratulations, you keep this immaculate!’ ”
Walking down the stairs near a meeting room: “I imagine this is a photo op for brides?”
In the guest rooms, he opens drawers and examines the contents — coffee pods, coffee cups, a leather-bound notepad, office supplies. He runs his finger along frames and ledges, looking for dust. He opens and closes toilet lids. Along the way, he’s commenting on how hard it must be to keep the carpets clean and how durable marble is while taking notes and rating everything on his tablet. Through it all, it’s clear the inspector has a keen awareness of germs:
“Have you ever looked through a magnifying glass at what we breathe?” he says. “It’s amazing we live as long as we live.”
When the inspection wraps up, Inspector 40 meets with management and lets them know he will recommend the property for Five Diamonds once again, and he shares some minor critiques. Then he’s off to the next inspection.
This year marked a first in the Forbes ratings’ 61-year history: Every one of The Peninsula’s 10 hotels snagged Five Stars, an unprecedented feat for a hotel brand. The Peninsula Manila gained a Star this year, making the sweep possible.
Forbes Travel Guide works with about 50 evaluators around the world, and they remain incognito, acting as an average guest would. Amanda Frasier, Forbes Travel Guide’s executive vice president for standards and ratings, says an evaluator will arrive at a hotel with a list of more than 500 criteria to score. He or she will note whether the car is quickly greeted in the porte cochere, whether the bellman is making natural eye contact and smiling, if the front-desk staff is showing genuine interest and listening, if the team’s uniforms look professional and more.
The tagline of Forbes Travel Guide is “we verify luxury,” and they do that, says Frasier, by relying on a set of consistent standards.
“We’re really just trying to give the consumer a clean, clear picture of what exactly they can expect,” she says. “And whether you stay in a Four-Star hotel in London or stay in a Four-Star hotel in New York, there are going to be some experiential similarities. Even though the look and feel might be different, the level of service you can expect to receive is going to be pretty much on par.” Look up The American Club in Kohler, Wis., on Yelp and TripAdvisor, and it gets four and 4 1⁄2 stars out of five, respectively. That’s not too far off from AAA and Forbes Travel Guide, which both award the resort the most elite ratings: Five Diamonds and Five Stars.
To industry insiders such as Christine Loose, vice president of lodging and wellness for Kohler Co., the rating systems are “very different creatures.” Both, she admits, cause her to lose sleep.
Industry ratings, she says, are very objective and based on specific criteria. Crowdsourced reviews are much more subjective.
“Those are people who have just spent their money — it’s come out of their paycheck,” says Loose. “And they tend to skew either really positive or not positive. I believe they’re an emotional product because it’s their hard-earned money.”
Pierre-Louis Giacotto, general manager of The Blackstone in Chicago, says that AAA and Forbes Travel Guide keep hoteliers on their toes.
“They have standards that really force you to push up and not be complacent in being OK,” he says.
Lately, those newer standards have put an emphasis on improved technology and that incentivizes the hotel to continue evolving.
“The goal is not to only please one person; the goal is to please everyone and to do the service consistently,” says Giacotto. “Yes, it’s great that we do a good job for the inspector, but I want to do a good job for 100 percent of the people that come in every day.”
Kate Silver is a freelance writer.