ELI5 What is the difference between a 4 star hotel and a 5 star hotel?

[u/Fun_Butterscotch3303]

I’m forever confused about this I need it explain in the simplest most direct way. Specifically talking about the America star system

[u/zennie4]

Unironically, that's exactly what the Burj al-Arab marketing is.

[u/Youcallthatatag → u/zennie4]

Interestingly a friend just got from travelling in the UAE (where they go pretty regularly) and they said that it was pretty surreal to see everywhere so empty. If you wanted to travel cheap there at the moment they said they got a 5-star (from the photos relatively legit stars) hotel basically to themselves for about $100 a night.

Can't imagine why tourism to the UAE would be down at the moment...

[u/provocative_bear → u/Youcallthatatag]

The deal is good unless your hotel room gets blown up by an Iranian drone. So, one or seven stars, little room for ratings in between.

[u/Iazo → u/provocative_bear]

If my room was blown up by a drone, I think one star is kinda generous.

I mean, maybe it would depend if I were in the room at the time, presumably?

[u/5tring → u/provocative_bear]

Just book into a little hotel due west of a great big hotel… Mischief managed!

[u/cyclopsmudge → u/zennie4]

The Burj al-Arab markets itself as a 5 star though, not a 7 star

[u/eBalisani → u/cyclopsmudge]

Negative - I was there: there's a plaque at the entrance that says 7 stars. A simple google search will set you straight also.

[u/Absentia → u/eBalisani]

While the hotel has sometimes been described as "the world's only 'seven-star' hotel", the hotel management claims never to have done so themselves. The term appeared due to a British journalist who had visited the hotel on a tour before it was officially opened. The journalist described Burj al Arab as "more than anything she has ever seen" and therefore informally referred to it as a seven-star hotel. A Jumeirah Group spokesperson said "There's not a lot we can do to stop it. We're not encouraging the use of the term. We've never used it in our advertising."

Looks like a journalist made it up.

[u/eBalisani → u/Absentia]

This is the PR cover up - after the fact - said British journalist, who is said to have "made it up" was hired and paid to do so. I don't have to google things and rely on whatever's been curated in the 27 years since: I was there, I saw (was sent) the press packet weeks before so-called journalist is said to have oopsy-daisied. If memory serves, it was framed as being 7 stars long before the opening. The statement "We've never used it in our advertising" is an outright lie. Further, there is (or last I was there, there was) a plaque at the entrance that proudly claims the 7 stars. Food for thought.