Asian Wall Street Journal

August 23, 2002

Star Struck, p.3

There's an exclusive island resort in Fiji famous for its service standards and sheer luxury - guests pick their own private beach, and lobster and French champagne are on tap. There is absolute peace, absolute privacy and the scenery and service are second to none. The resort is Turtle Island resort, frequented by the rich, the famous and those in-the-know; the island was the setting for the 1980 film starring Brooke Shields, "Blue Lagoon."

But, in most countries, Turtle Island "would have difficulty" getting a five-star rating, according to Lynne Ireland, Asia-Pacific chairman of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the umbrella group for 280 hotels.

Some of the most luxurious properties in the world, other with the best locations, and some with the best service may be escaping your radar. The reason: the prevalent star-rating system is a far from reliable guide, particularly for holiday travelers."Star-ratings are based on a formula," says Jon Stonham, chief executive officer of asia-hotels.com. "Have you got a swimming pool, have you got a conference center, how big are the rooms? If you get enough boxes ticked, you get a five-star rating. It's got nothing to do with the ambience of the hotel, the service or the attitude of the staff."

According to Mr. Stonham, the result is that some small hotels are real gems but aren't recognized with high ratings, and some big hotels that "purport to be classy joints" and have five star ratings "are not actually that good."

For business travelers particularly, the star-rating system is one way of ensuring a level of consistency and a range of facilities. But star ratings can't take into account character and ambience.

And what is not well known is that there is no international standard for ratings. In different countries, different bodies-from the hotels themselves to tourism departments and hotel associations-allocate and monitor star ratings.

For Ms. Ireland, whose Small Luxury hotels portfolio includes some of the most exclusive and luxurious properties in the world, including Turtle Island, the star-ratings are a particularly unreliable indicator. "Surely the option of a private dining experience on a private island, a mountain-top picnic or a wedding in a romantic beach ceremony would far outweigh having a conference room for 30 people, yet this would be a prerequisite for some five-star ratings," she says.

According to Mark Stephens, operations manager for Miki Travel, Japan's largest travel operator, leisure travelers who couldn't care less about whether there's a conference center should be wary of star ratings. "You might have a five star hotel with the best range of facilities but the worst service."

So how do you make sure you're getting what you want out of a resort? Look for independent opinions, says Mr. Stephens. "We [Miki Travel] don't use the star ratings supposed to reflect what we feel these hotels are really like," he says. The categories range from "tourist class" to "superior-deluxe class." "We give the hotels ratings based on the recommendations of contractors who go out and visit the hotels. For instance, our 'first-class' category would be a very good two-star hotel or a not very good three-star hotel," he says.

The accreditation system that has been used by asia-hotels.com since the site started in 1997 is based almost entirely on customer feedback. This year the Web site polled more than 42,000 customers about 3, 800 hotels listed on the site. "When we set up a review system, we found that some hotels were consistently getting good feedback, and they weren't necessarily the big hotels," says Mr. Stonham. "So we asked customers to nominate their three top hotels, and to grade them out of 10. Now it's an accreditation system based on customer feedback, "Mr. Stonham says. "A three-star hotel, the De Soya in Hanoi, got five 'thumbs' -our highest rating-while the Keong Saik in Singapore, a two-and-a-half-star hotel, got four-and-a-half thumbs."

So what rating does Turtle Island resort get? It doesn't have one, but if you want a room, you'll have to wait until at least February. ---Geet Frank