(English) Hotels: star-shaped quality

A common question posed by those wanting to stay in a hotel is what criteria have been followed for it to be rated as a one or five-star hotel. In Spain, it is usually thought that the assessment of these establishments goes hand in hand with the services provided. The thoroughness with which this line of work is being handled has borne fruit and it prevents tourists from feeling unsatisfied when their expectations are not fulfilled.

In Spain, the different Autonomous Communities have the power to rate hotels, but this does not hinder a uniform use of criteria throughout the whole country so that inequalities among regions won’t arise. Before opening a hotel, it is mandatory to request its rating at the relevant Department or Directorate General for Tourism, and it will be valid as long as the establishment meets the law standards.

In order to guarantee that a hotel keeps complying over time with the requirements needed to have a certain number of stars, each Community carries out regular site inspections. This way, both the quality of the service and the excellence of the Spanish hotel system, a referent throughout Europe, are warranted.

With the purpose of achieving a greater criteria unification, the Confederación Española de Hoteles y Alojamientos Turísticos (Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, CEHAT in Spanish) published in 2011 a guideline for the various autonomous regulations in Spain to follow. Among other things, this document details the minimum number of square metres that the rooms in a hotel must have in order to be accordingly rated and the required equipment in each case. For example, double rooms in a five-star hotel should have at least 17 square metres, while the ones in a three-star hotel can just have 15 square metres.

Even though hotel ratings are usually divided into five levels, Communities such as Catalonia included two more a few years ago: four-star superior and great luxury. In this particular case, the criteria used to obtain these ratings are not just based on the rooms measures, but also on their equipment.

As you can see, the Spanish star-granting system does not come about by chance, but it meets strict dispositions reinforced by constant inspections. Thanks to this thorough work, in Spain we can no longer use an expression that translates as: “this hotel is about to lose a star”.

Categories: Tourism