Hotel star-rating changes as States system ends

Hoteliers have been told they will have to apply for their own star-rating elsewhere after a government-funded scheme came to an end.

The States of Guernsey said it decided to close the initiative in April in an attempt to save money and make the industry "more commercial" across the island.

Lee Van Katwyk, tourism lead for the Committee for Economic Development, said a number of different services were available for businesses to get an assessment.

A number of hotel managers in Guernsey said they would still apply for an official rating due to it being a universal scale for the industry, but others said they would rely more on customer reviews on websites like Booking.com and TripAdvisor.

The States said star ratings would still be shown on the Visit Guernsey website.

Van Katwyk said the government felt rating systems was an area where times had changed.

"There's lots of different ways that you can get ratings for accommodations, whether through booking providers or official rating companies," he said.

"So it was just felt that it was time for companies to either pay for those themselves or use some of the free ones, which will still be advertising on Visit Guernsey as well."

Van Katwyk added it was too early to know how much money ending the States-funded ratings would save.

Will Haegland, manager of the three-star Pandora Hotel in St Peter Port, said having an official rating was still important.

He said: "Grading tells our guests something internationally, wherever you're from, you know that if you're the three-star graded hotel it's a better than the two-star.

"So I think it's important to stay with a recognised system of assessing hotels."

Haegland, who said the hotel was two-star when he took it over, added travel website reviews had become a big part of industry.

"But it doesn't replace the need for a set standard that hotels are reviewed towards, that we can therefore, it tells people something about the standard they are to expect," he said.

"So for us, we will continue to have star reviews."

Garin Dart, general manager of the Le Pommier Hotel in Castel, said he did not think having a formal star-rating would impact whether customers came to the venue and was happy to focus on online reviews.

Dart said he personally thought the hotel was at a four-star level, but had been marked as three-star due to how the system worked.

"The criteria is down to the desk lamp, is the full length mirror in every room, is there an in-room safe or an in-room fridge in each room, so we've got a mixture of those," he said.

"We can invest a lot more money and we can make sure we get up to a four-star criteria.

"Do we really need to do that? That's the business case for us.

"I'd much rather give the staff a pay rise and put a safe in each room."

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