Hotels and their Star Ratings - What do they mean?
By James Martin, About.com
So you’re wandering around Europe and notice stars prominently displayed in front of every hotel. Say you find one that has three stars. What does it mean?
The short answer is: just about anything, but probably not what you’re thinking. Let’s get one thing straight, there is no unified definition of a three-star hotel across Europe. And another thing: most of the ratings are provided by the government (or in some cases, like Switzerland, by a volunteer organization), and will be a quantitative measure used to determine the price range (and sometimes the tax obligation) of a hotel. The ranges will overlap, so don’t even look for that much consistency in price; a three star hotel may be more expensive than a four star, even in the same city. It depends.
