What is a 5-star hotel? Luxury criteria, services and who judges them

Luxury by checklist: how the European scheme defines five stars

The Hotelstars Union calls five stars the Luxury level, according to Wikipedia's article on hotel rating. The union was established at a conference in Prague in 2009, had rules taking effect in most founding countries in January 2010, under the patronage of the hotel and restaurant association HOTREC. Its FAQ describes the five-star category as luxury accommodation with the highest level of comfort and a wide range of services and amenities.

The system works on points. Each criterion carries points, each category has mandatory criteria and optional extras, and the FAQ states that meeting the minimum alone does not earn a star level. Hotels that meet every mandatory criterion in a category and deliver an exceptional level of service can carry the Superior addition, so you may see five stars Superior on a plaque.

Hotels rated three to five stars are checked by mystery guests, Wikipedia says. At the top of the scale, then, the label is meant to follow a visit and a scored checklist, not a claim made by the hotel.

The 24-hour layer: reception, concierge, turndown and room service

What most clearly separates five stars from four is time. The Hotelstars criteria for five stars list a 24-hour reception service, where four stars asks for a 14-hour reception service with the hotel physically available around the clock. A restaurant open seven days a week and a bar or lounge with service seven days a week are named, as is a minibar and 24-hour room service for food and drinks.

Then come the personal services: valet parking, concierge and luggage service, ironing, shoe-shine and sewing service, a shuttle or limousine service, and evening turndown. Each of these appears in the five-star column of the criteria page.

Breakfast is specified too: a buffet with waiter service or an equivalent menu, plus a breakfast menu in room service. These breakfast lines are part of the five-star minimum.

Bed widths, blackout and a lit desk: the five-star room on paper

The room criteria are more precise than at lower levels. Hotelstars lists single beds with a mattress width of at least 0.90 metres and double beds of at least 1.80 metres. It names a full blackout option, a desk with 0.6 square metres of surface plus lighting and a power socket, an in-room safe, and an iron or steamer with ironing board on request or in an ironing room.

The bathroom adds bathrobe and slippers in the room, where four stars provides them on request. Each is a line a checker can tick.

Five stars, Five Diamonds and Keys: who judges luxury

Luxury is judged by several different bodies. Wikipedia says Forbes Travel Guide, formerly the Mobil Travel Guide, launched its star rating system in 1958 and awards four or five stars or a recommended rating, using over 900 attributes. The AAA uses a one-to-five diamond scale with 27 criteria, so five diamonds is the top of its scale. Michelin awards one, two or three Keys, which Wikipedia says do not have a checklist; expert reviewers decide.

These are private guides with their own methods. A hotel can have a national five-star classification, a Forbes rating and Michelin Keys at once, or any one of them. When the three differ, they are measuring different things: facilities against a checklist for the union scheme, a long list of attributes for Forbes, and expert judgment for Michelin.

In the UK, the AA rates hotels from three to five black stars, reflecting quality in areas such as hospitality, service, bedrooms and food, and says hotels with silver stars have been selected for offering superior levels of quality. Visit England describes five stars as luxury and extra amenities.

Why five stars is not one global standard

Because there is no global standard, countries and organisations set their own. Wikipedia notes that France's tourist board, Atout France, changed to a five-star system from 2009, that some Hotelstars member countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Greece and Italy, set standards by law, and that in the United States there is no government-regulated hotel rating standard. Australia's scheme uses 200 criteria and describes five-star properties as typifying luxury across all areas of operation, with excellent design quality and attention to detail.

For the traveller, that means a five-star hotel in Zurich, Paris and Dubai may share a broad promise without sharing every line of a checklist. The union's criteria are the best published example, but they apply only in its member countries, which Wikipedia lists as including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

Marketing language adds another layer. See what is a 7-star hotel for why labels above five carry no official standing.

Is a five-star hotel the right fit? Time, space and kitchens

The five-star criteria listed by Hotelstars concern services and room specification; they do not name a kitchen. For a short city break where you want staff, a restaurant and a bar under one roof, the checklist maps well onto the stay. For a month in a city, an apartment-style stay with a kitchen and laundry may suit better; aparthotel versus hotel sets out the trade-off, and how aparthotels are classified and rated explains how apartments are rated.

Browse luxury stays in Dubai or luxury stays in Paris to see how apartment-style and hotel options compare in the same cities. What is a resort covers the case where the hotel is itself the destination.

• Which body awarded the stars, and is it a classification or a guide?
• Does the hotel list Superior, Forbes, AAA or Michelin recognition, and from which year?
• Are the services you want, such as room service or a late restaurant, confirmed on the listing?
• Is there a kitchen or laundry, or will you rely on the hotel's services?