Toronto Hotels

[rbt]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

The Sheraton is a "luxury" hotel?

Sheraton in Hong Kong is one of the nicer hotels I've ever stayed in (I'm well into the hundreds of hotels at this point; mostly North America and teh $200/night and up range). If the rest of their asian line is anything like that, then it would certainly be classed as a luxury chain.

I would put Sheraton HongKong on par with the Liberty Hotel in Boston for Starwood Platinum members: champaign is delivered to your room rather than getting it a checkin. Club lounge has an open bar and the staff are extremely good and able to find nearly anything you want.

Four Points (also a Starwood brand) is also extremely popular in China.

[Epi]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Westin is almost always a 5-star hotel in China, while Sheraton is 4-5-star. They are mostly new properties, and many live up to the 5-star label. Their brand positioning is a bit different in this part of the world - they've gone upmarket.

Oh I understand that 'technically' they are 5-star if you are just going by checklist (has pool, conference facilities, restaurants, etc). But of the 3 so called '5-star' hotels I stayed in China on my tour a few years back, I can say that they were at best on par in decor and service as newer 4-stars in North America or Europe. A regular China '5-star' isn't exactly the same as the Four Seasons or the Peninsula (in asia) or what would be considered 5-star in the Western world.

[Taller, Better]

Technically, a five star hotel used to be required to have 24 hour kitchen for room service, and lots of butler service (often a butler for every floor), etc.... Most hotels that call themselves five star nowadays have a much more "relaxed" system than used to be used. The term five star gets bandied about far too easily.

[current]

There is trouble with several investors - Toronto Star article:
Trump, Talon International Focus of Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit By Investors
Published on Thursday November 22, 2012
By Susan Pigg
Business Reporter

Lawyers for four investors have launched a multi-million lawsuit against Donald Trump and Talon International Inc. alleging that buyers in one of Toronto’s glitziest hotels were “victims of an investment scheme and conspiracy.”...

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...t-by-investors

[rbt]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

Technically, a five star hotel used to be required to have 24 hour kitchen for room service, and lots of butler service (often a butler for every floor), etc.

A butler on every floor was a lot easier before point towers were common (King Edward with 50 units per level rather than Trump with 12); but yeah, I agree that five star is too easy to earn.

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by rbt

A butler on every floor was a lot easier before point towers were common (50 to 80 units per level rather than 10 to 12); but yeah, I agree that five star is too easy to earn.

and more importantly, often the "Five Star" appellation is not even "earned" at all, as new hotels just automatically bestow it upon themselves even before the hotel is built. The term is bandied about so freely that it means nothing anymore.

[monkeyronin]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

and more importantly, often the "Five Star" appellation is not even "earned" at all, as new hotels just automatically bestow it upon themselves even before the hotel is built. The term is bandied about so freely that it means nothing anymore.

Thankfully some people are a little more modest.

[Taller, Better]

hehe.... finally truth in advertising!

[waldenbg]

That's why it's important to look at other sources, like Tripadvisor, AAA, and Forbes for the rating. Don't go by what a hotel says.

[Taller, Better]

And I wouldn't necessarily put too much store in those websites where every Tom Dick and Harry wants to be an amateur hotel critic. People seek out hotels where they can get a room for $99 a night, and then whine and complain when they don't get treated as if they had paid $400 a night. Ditto for most of those "I wanna be an amateur food critic but I don't actually know anything about food" websites, too.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

and more importantly, often the "Five Star" appellation is not even "earned" at all, as new hotels just automatically bestow it upon themselves even before the hotel is built. The term is bandied about so freely that it means nothing anymore.

Sort of like that hotel in Dubai marketing themselves as the world's first 7 star hotel. Oh yeah, well mine is a 50 star hotel!

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Sort of like that hotel in Dubai marketing themselves as the world's first 7 star hotel. Oh yeah, well mine is a 50 star hotel!

In my opinion, that was the beginning of the end for the star system. A self-annointed award of 7 stars out of a scale that goes from 1 to 5.

[isaidso]

I find most rating systems absurd. People hype up everything these days to the point that many words have become meaningless. Everything is 'super', 'luxury', or 'deluxe', etc.

On a more positive note, there was an article in the Globe & Mail about the new HK Hotel in Exhibition Park. It mentioned that construction will get under way within a year and the company won due to its sensitivity to the historical importance of the site.

Apparently, there were 6 large stone military buildings of which only 1 remains. The foundations of the others were literally paved over for the parking lot. The hotel plans to build a glass canopy so people can look down to one of the unearthed foundations along with an interpretive centre. They will also build a fake pond to depict where the original lake shore used to be to give people a better feeling for what the area once looked like.

[current]

Here is a rendering from the Globe article:

Read article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle5664040/

[ToroTO]

There is no set standard for star ratings, it is simply determined by whatever system the agency, doing the reviews, decides to use. Michelin Guides, Trip Advisor, AAA/CAA, various tour companies, etc, all set their own guidelines needed to receive a certain number of Keys, Stars, Diamonds or other symbol.
I would never pay any attention to what a hotel rates themselves, they don't have representatives going around independently rating all the hotels in a particular place against their own hotel, so it is basically meaningless.

[Taller, Better]

Practically every new and expensive hotel just automatically grants itself five star status. The star system is practically useless today.

[isaidso]

It's all just someone's opinion any way so these ratings hold little weight if any. I've recently granted my condo unit '5 star' status.

[Taller, Better]

You poor thing! I live in a 10 Star apartment building. My unit has a 24 hour kitchen if required, and 24 hour around the clock butler service.

I'm the butler.

[ToroTO]

The rating systems are only useless if you consider each system's levels match each other, they don't. One agency's 3 star does not mean it has the same requirements and conditions as another agency's 3 star. If you stick to one rating agency and know their requirements for each level, then the system is of value.

What a particular hotel rates itself is only an indication of the level they want to be, not what they actually are.

[Taller, Better]

All good in theory, but there is no such thing as hotels sticking to one rating agency. Doesn't happen and doesn't exist. It seems to me to be pretty much a free-for-all nowadays in the ratings game.
Also, the ratings system of one country are not the same as another. You could stay at a three star hotel in one country that would be a one star hotel in another.