1.
Some travelers will only book five-star hotels. But how are those stars decided, and what do they really mean? Hotel star ratings began with gasoline company Mobil. In 1958, the company started paying anonymous reviewers to rate hotels and restaurants for the Mobil Travel Guide.
2.
The company wanted to encourage people to use gasoline to travel, and its guide helped people find the best places to stay and eat in the US. This guide is now called the Forbes Travel Guide. It still uses anonymous reviews, but focuses on international luxury travel.
(1)What’s the best accommodation you ever stayed in?
(2)What sites do you usually use when booking accommodation? Do you ever leave reviews for accommodation?
3. Five stars in this guide mean a hotel has almost perfect service and amazing facilities. But there are other star systems, and not all are based on reviews. Hotels in many European countries get stars from the Hotelstars Union, which gives points based mostly on hotels’ facilities.
4.
For example, hotels get more points for having larger rooms and beds, 24-hour reception, and staff who speak several languages. More points mean more stars — with 95 points needed just to get one star. But while the Hotelstars system is used in 20 countries, it isn’t used in popular places like France, Spain and Italy.
(1)Have you ever been disappointed by any attractions or accommodation?
(2)What are the most relaxing vacations you’ve had? Have you made any plans for your next vacation?
5.
France has a national rating system, while in Italy and Spain, stars are decided by local governments. And booking websites like Expedia and Hotels.com give their own stars as well.
6.
Some journalists now even refer to certain luxury hotels as “seven-star” — but this isn’t based on any official system, so it doesn’t really mean anything. So what do hotel stars mean? Unfortunately, for each system, you need to look at how the stars were given to find out.
(1)What is the level of customer service like in banks/ in fast food restaurants/ from (mobile) phone companies/ from utilities/ from transport companies/ from airlines in your country? Are there any differences between different providers?
(2)Do you think you are or could be good at customer service? What makes you say that?
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