Three-star hotels have lowest approval rating

Three-star hotels provide their guests with worse levels of service than any other grade of hotel, according to hospitality consultancy Scher International.

The finding is based on a survey of "mystery guests" as detailed in the latest British Hospitality Association/Scher Benchmark report.

It reveals that in the three months to 30 June three-star hotels were given an overall approval rating of 75.9%.

This was the lowest rating. The highest satisfaction rating was 89.8%, awarded to five-star hotels.

Four-star hotels received 82.6% and budget and two-star hotels came next with 78.9%.

During the three months 871 hotels were assessed in nine areas of service performance, including checking-in time, cleanliness and staff efficiency, and by whether guests would recommend hotels to others.

One area found to have deteriorated when compared with 1998 was telephone efficiency.

The average number of rings before calls were answered by reservations desks this year was 4.4, compared with 3.9 last year.

The average number of rings for room service has also increased, from 4.7 to 5.1.

Five-star hotels were found to be the slowest at checking in their guests.

The average check-in time at five-star hotels was revealed to be more than six minutes but was around the three-minute mark at budget, three- and four-star hotels.

Five-star hotels were, however, considered to be the best at putting things right when they go wrong.

The report also revealed that 93% of guests staying in budget hotels said they would recommend them, compared with 88% in five-star, 82% in four-star and 73% in three-star.

by Louise Bozec

l Regular survey information from Scher will appear in Caterer from 9 September.