Hotel Star System to Lose Official Backing

The official star-rating system used to rank hotels in Britain is to lose state backing this week, after claims that customer reviews posted online are more reliable. National tourism agencies, such as VisitEngland, grade hotels from one to five stars, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says collective rankings more accurately reflect holidaymakers' concerns.

The current system is also considered to work against smaller hotels, which often receive just one or two stars because they cannot offer the same breadth of services as a large hotel, even if their standards of service, accommodation and food are judged very favourably.

A DCMS spokesman confirmed yesterday: "We are going to be publishing our tourism strategy next month and in that we back a consumer-led system like TripAdvisor rather than traditional star-rating systems."

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