Star (classification)
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Template:Otheruses4 Image:Hotel.arp.750pix.jpg Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. In particular, a set of one to five stars is employed to categorize hotels.
In some countries, there is an official body with standard criteria for classifying hotels, but in many others, there is none. Although there have been numerous attempts at unifying the classification scheme so that it becomes an internationally recognized and reliable standard, large differences exist as far as the quality of the accommodation and the food within one category of hotel is concerned, sometimes even in the same country. However, certain standards have become common knowledge and have accordingly entered everyday language. For instance, a five star hotel is always associated with luxury and high prices. The lack of standardisation has allowed marketing-driven inflation, with some hotels claiming six stars; the Burj al-Arab markets itself as "the world's first seven-star hotel." Generally though well established prestige hotels are content to stick with the traditional five.
Roughly, the five categories are divided up as follows:
- * (one star) -- low budget hotel
- ** (two stars) -- budget hotel
- *** (three stars) -- middle class hotel
- **** (four stars) -- first class hotel
- ***** (five stars) -- luxury hotel
The AAA and their affiliated bodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels, in much the same way.
Traditional systems tend to rest heavily on the facilities provided, which is often disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class, but the lack of an item (even where unnecessary) such as an elevator, would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization.
Other uses
- Stars are also used to classify restaurants. For example, the Michelin Guide rates cuisine with the help of one to three stars. However, only a tiny fraction of restaurants receive any stars at all. Michelin also grades restaurants by comfort using one to five "knife and fork" logos. Michelin's rival Gault Millau awards toques.
- Stars also express military rank. See British military rank insignia or U.S. Navy officer rank insignia as examples.
- The producers of certain alcoholic beverages (brandies, liqueurs) also use stars to distinguish between their products. See, for example, Metaxa.
- Movie and music reviewers and critics (such as Roger Ebert) frequently use a similar kind of rating system, one to five stars most common in music and one to four most common in film (one to five almost as common), to assess the quality of the films they discuss. Occasionally, a rating of "zero stars" might be awarded to films of exceptionally low quality.