Crown of thorns?

Although it's been in operation for less than a decade, the Crown classification scheme has stirred endless controversy and debate. Now it is under scrutiny in a review ordered by tourism minister Iain Sproat.

It's no secret that Sproat is eager for change at the English Tourist Board (ETB) and he's unwilling to wait. Hence his recent demand for an evaluation study into the effectiveness and viability of the Crown scheme by the end of next month.

The reaction to this latest Government order at the tourist board's headquarters in Hammersmith is one of resignation. They are becoming used to Sproat's "new broom" ideas.

The tourist board is being asked to radically question one of its most notorious schemes. The brainchild of recently-retired ETB controller of accommodation standards Frank Howe, Crown ratings were introduced to the hotel industry in 1985 and were launched for public consumption two years later.

The intention was to replace an existing and somewhat woolly system which had relied on voluntary registration and virtual self-classification, with a code of conduct and notional minimum standards. There were no inspections, so the arrangement was open to abuse.

Consequently, the three national tourist boards banded together and agreed what became the Crown classification scheme. Its weaknesses became immediately apparent.

The biggest criticism was that grading depended on facilities, not quality. This led to a situation where, for example, extras such as a full-length mirror and hairdryer in a bedroom might reward a hotel with three crowns rather than two. Yet the lower-graded hotel might be more luxurious generally than its higher-gradedcompetitor.

Over the years there have been countless squabbles across the hotel industry, lead by bodies such as the British Hospitality Association, which argued against what it saw as excessive and bureaucratic interference by the tourist boards.

With time, many hoteliers have come to accept the Crown scheme (according to the ETB, 18,000 places to stay in Britain participate), if only because refusal to register means exclusion from the annual ETB Where to Stay guide.

The ETB has a number of well-rehearsed answers to counter the criticisms. It argues that its quality gradings deal with the question of standards. Ranging from Approved through Commended and Highly Commended to De Luxe categories, the additional gradings inform the customer about quality of service, fixtures and fittings.

Before Howe left his job at the ETB last month he spoke to Caterer about the criticism of the scheme: "There have always been critics and you can't please everyone. The whole purpose of our involvement in these schemes has been to create additional business for the hotel industry. This happens when the public can recognise somewhere to stay that doesn't disappoint."

He added: "People need answers to two fundamental questions: Does the hotel offer what I want or need? And to what standard?"

ETB assistant director of marketing David Phillips is keen to stress that the Government-requested evaluation study is more routine than might be supposed. "It's all part of a five-year plan. It just happens that we've brought forward the timing to have it completed by the end of May," he says.

As Caterer went to press, the tourist board had yet to appoint a company to carry out the research. According to Phillips, the study, which will cost around £20,000, has three aims.

"Firstly, it will look at how the crown scheme meets consumer needs. The second aim is to see whether the quality grading system is effective, and lastly we will compare the crown system with the other classification schemes."

He dismisses the suggestion that the study might foretell the scheme's demise and says: "We're confident that we'll be able to make a strong case for its continuation."

With another questionable piece of timing, the tourist board has asked public relations company Quentin Bell to run a £20,000 public awareness campaign to promote crowns and quality gradings.

Targeting both the business and leisure traveller, the campaign aims to increase awareness between now and the start of the summer holiday season.

Despite the fact that the evaluation study will be published during the middle of the consumer awareness campaign, neither the ETB nor the National Heritage department sees any contradiction.

Gordon Griffiths, spokesman at the National Heritage press office says: "I don't really see any conflict between the two. They'll help each other. I suppose the timing could have been different but many things in life could benefit from better timing."

Many hoteliers contest this view. In a letter to Caterer on 24 March, Mary James of the Regent Hotel in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, wrote: "It strikes me that there is a clear case of tourist boards being at cross purposes here, and not least spending money out of an already very tight budget. Surely money should only be spent on one issue or the other initially?"

Across the country, feelings about the Crown scheme run high. Larger hotels resent the inclusion of what they see as unprofessional profiteers at the lower end of the market within the classifications, while smaller hoteliers and guesthouse owners believe that the extensive list of facilities needed for Crown grading bars them from gaining high crown status.

A vociferous opponent to the scheme is Kath Price, owner of Stretton Lodge in Cheltenham.

One of her biggest criticisms centres on the controversial six-bed rule, which exempts operators with six or fewer beds from paying a number of charges such as business rates.

This infuriates hoteliers who know they are being undercut by operators declaring six beds but who are in truth renting out many more. Many, like Price, believe ETB inspectors to be far too lax in allowing registration and respectability for these people who she describes as the "pirates".

But she holds out little hope of change. She says of the evaluation study: "The ETB will probably manage to persuade Sproat that jobs would be lost if the scheme were scrapped, so they'll end up sticking with it."

Having dropped out of the ETB's Where to Stay guide three years ago, Price has no regrets. But she is bitter that registration with the ETB is inextricably linked to inclusion in local tourist board guides and says: "They held us over a barrel so that we had to be registered with the ETB if we wanted to appear in local publications."

Murmurs of "blackmail" come from Barry Cole, managing director at the 23-bedroom Osborne Hotel in Torquay. He believes that most respectable hoteliers feel pressured into registration and entry into the ETB guide even though they oppose the Crown classification system.

He says: "As a scheme, it fails the public miserably. It fails to inform the visitor about the hotel in a way that would tell them something useful about the difference between the products available."

Cole feels that one major deficiency is the lack of any indicator showing value for money, which he thinks the public would appreciate

He would also like to see the job of inspections and grading farmed out to the private sector, leaving the ETB to concentrate on marketing.

In York, Len Spray, owner of the family-run Grasmead House Hotel and chairman of the Greater York Hotels and Guesthouses Association, does not mince his words about the Crown scheme. "Useless. Completely pointless," he says. "Nobody understands what crowns mean. The scheme is just jobs for the boys." Nevertheless, he is registered with the ETB in order to be in the Where to Stay guide - but the ultimate irony is that the Grasmead has been accidentally omitted from this year's edition.

Less concerned with the politics of the ETB is Enn Tiidus, owner of the aptly named Crown Hotel in Coniston, Cumbria. Having run the one crown-rated hotel for 17 years, he comments: "It's always a good idea to keep your name in the forefront, so it seemed right to register."

Across the Pennines in Consett, County Durham, owner of the two-crown rated Castlenook Guesthouse William Stafford, says that ETB inspection is only to be praised. He believes it maintains standards and distinguishes the better establishments from the lower grade ones.

Equally content with ETB endorsement is Keith Hill, owner of the 28-room Beeches Hotel in Norwich. Having achieved a three-crown Commended status, Hill does express concern that consistent standards may not be applied by inspectors across the country. He welcomes an evaluation study.

Whatever the outcome of the next few months, by the autumn there will be plenty of information about the Crown system in the hands of tourist boards, hoteliers and the Department of National Heritage.

How that information is used could well depend upon public reaction to the awareness campaign it is about to experience. o