How many Stars can a Hotel have?
We’ve all heard of one, two, even five star hotels, but is there something as a hotel with not five, but seven stars out there? The answer is yes. However, most of us would be baffled by the fact that if a five star hotel is the most luxurious hotel, than what does it mean if it has seven stars?
Well there is one skyscraper, the fifth tallest one, which is marketed as the first hotel to have seven stars. This hotel is Signiel Seoul, and it is located in South Korea. The thing that makes this hotel deserving of seven stars might be the fact that it offers helicopter transportations, a champagne selection unlike anywhere in the world, and the most luxurious hotel room, which is in fact the most expensive at $18,000 per night. However, there is no such thing as a seven-star hotel.
Well according to the chief manager of this hotel, although they are aware that a seven star hotel does not exist, they just want to emphasize their hotel’s superiority above others.
How did this term come to existence?
Well it is believed that it was first used in 1999 by a journalist, while she was writing an article about the opening of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. The reasoning behind this was that this hotel was so exceptional that it could not possibly be given only five stars. According to her, five star hotels were nowhere near as grandiose as this one; therefore it deserved to be the first hotel to have seven stars. This is so because it offered marvelous décor, tours via helicopter, impeccable service, as well as the possibility to rent the most luxurious cars. This together with their highest ratio of staff per suite comes with quite a hefty price of $3,250 per night, with complementary 24 carat gold IPad for every room.
According to the owner of a booking site called Suite Story, a line has to be drawn somewhere, because If this is the norm now, imagine what else could be coined, so that hotels or companies can promote their products. We might even witness the invention of hotels and products with more stars, or bigger ratings than our standards. Instead of getting 100 points, a product might get 112. Where does it stop?
This is even a bigger issue since different countries have different standards when rating a hotel or a service. With that being said always make sure what you are getting is up to your standards, wherever you go. As the editor of Travelzoo says, we cannot be sure if the five or four stars in one country are the same as the ones in another country. Therefore, the service rating in the world is contradictory and uncertain.
When the Town House Galleria in Milan opened in 2007 it applied for the seven-star certification, but it was denied by the SGS in Switzerland, due to the fact that they were not familiar with the entity that coined that term. Who sets the rating criteria is different for every country, therefore, the rating system is different everywhere.
However, since today anyone with an internet connection and a good number of following can coin any term it is no surprise that we see this trend of seven star hotels reappearing again. Nevertheless, with no valid certification this will disappear as soon as it appears.
