While travellers can check the sustainability credentials of hotels given a Green Key award or certification from EarthCheck, or to networks of independent luxury hotels such as Relais & Châteaux to help them choose addresses that match their search criteria, there are also a host of rankings out there claiming to rank the best in the business. As gastronomic rating institution Michelin prepares to present its own hotel ranking, we take a look at some of the tools and lists currently available to holidaymakers to help them select a place to unpack their bags.
To book a holiday abroad, without going through a travel agency, many of us regularly turn to booking platforms such as Booking and Hotels.com. Beyond allowing users to compare prices and locations, their selections of “top” hotels are based on the opinions of travellers who have posted comments after their stay. Whether on Google, Booking or TripAdvisor, the content of reviews and forums often play a key role for consumers when it comes to choice of lodging, particularly since they are often venturing to a completely unknown territory.
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Do hotel rankings matter? Consumers versus experts
The consumers’ choice
A search for a hotel can be filtered by a variety of factors including by average review rating. It’s logical that travellers are looking for the best or at least best value, especially when the hotel itself is the destination, as in the case of an all-inclusive holiday. Hence the importance of a listing of the best-rated addresses. A fixture on the digital travel landscape since the early 2000s, Tripadvisor has made its ranking of the world’s best hotels an annual benchmark. The latest edition came out last May, with the “Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best” crowning the Top 10 in the world, along with a host of other categories. To compile these awards, the US-based platform scours the thousands of comments published for each establishment to identify the hotels with the most glowing reviews. The “Best of the Best” award is presented to the best addresses, drawn from the last 12 months of reviews found among the platform’s “more than 1 billion reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses.”
Similarly, the hotels that receive the most praise from travellers on Booking.com are honoured at the “Traveller Review Awards.” Recognition is given to hotels with a rating between 8 and 10 and at least five online reviews. This is how establishments earn the famous blue plaques they often place on their reception counters. Both of these tools focus on feedback from average travellers, which inevitably leads to suspicion as to the veracity of the comments on such sites.. Both platforms are attempting to tackle this issue head-on with Tripadvisor publishing a dedicated report last spring indicating that 1.3 million posts considered false were intercepted last year. Nearly three quarters of these were reportedly detected before they could be read online.
The experts’ opinions
Meanwhile, tourism professionals also have an opportunity to weigh in on the very best in the hospitality sector. Since 1993, the “World Travel Awards” have been handing out national, regional and global prizes to candidates (hotels, airlines, destinations, car rental companies, etc.) who are chosen by designated players through a geographical system. While consumers are involved in deciding which awards to present, it is mainly travel agents and decision-makers in the tourism industry who take part in the selections. While some may question the objectivity of the final results, the rankings feature different categories of accommodation to also put the spotlight on accessible establishments as well. Luxury hotels are not the only winners, as they have their own category. There are also lists of top resorts for families and honeymooners, as well as the best romantic, boutique and all-inclusive hotels.
Other tourism professionals are also sharing their opinions and experiences in a brand new ranking, whose inaugural edition came out last month: “The World’s 50 Best Hotels.” The group behind the famous ranking of the world’s best restaurants are now turning their attention to accommodation. “Over the past 20 years, we have become the international market leader in providing the most reliable lists of expert-curated restaurants and bars on the planet. To us, it seems like a natural fit to complete the circle, uniting restaurants, bars and hotels…We want to create a unifying platform for the world’s best hotels and the amazing individuals behind them, but also for travel-loving consumers, helping them to choose the very best places to stay,” explained Managing Director Tim Brooke-Webb earlier this year.
As with the ranking of restaurants, the verdict was reached by an army of anonymous voters coming from various fields. They are in fact travel journalists, hoteliers and “experienced international travellers,” according to the group. “We believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a truly egalitarian hotels ranking…. Unlike other awards, there is no cost for entry, shortlisting and attendance,” explained Mark Sansom, Director of Content for “The World’s 50 Best Hotels.”
In the end, travellers may end up feeling lost faced with this mass of sources, each claiming to have spotted the best hotel in the world… The initiators of La Liste, which draws up an annual list of the “top 1,000 best restaurants in the world,” also decided this year to apply their formula — which compiles a variety of sources of opinion and expertise to define what constitutes the crème de la crème — to hotels. Travel guides, rankings, reviews, blogs… over 300 sources were used. In the end, it was Venice’s Hotel Cipriani that emerged victorious from the first edition, a luxury hotel where the price of a night is at least 700 euros (about US$740)…
This story is published via AFP Relaxnews.
