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The truth is unlikely to be satisfying.
The general expectation for a four-star hotel include specialized staff (e.g. concierge service, doormen and bellhops), a wide variety of on-site amenities (e.g. fine dining, fitness centers, health spas), and spacious rooms with “luxury” trimmings (fancy brand soap, high-quality linens).
Five-star hotels differ in just how fancy those fancy additions are, and how personalized the service is. A four-star hotel has bellhops shared among all guests, a five-star hotel offers a personal butler. A four-star hotel has a great restaurant, a five-star hotel has a Michelin star dinner destination. A four-star hotel has a spa available for reservations, a five-star hotel sends a masseuse to your room.
Again, its important to stress: these are *wholly arbitrary*. Star rankings can vary based on which country you’re in or which website you’re browsing. There is no internationally defined standard for what defines stars at any level. Some countries have informal guidelines established by a national tourism board or ministry, but even those are fuzzy around the edges.
It largely comes down to amenities and service.
I spent near a decade working at a 3 star property. Nothing fancy, just your average hotel. When I went on vacation, I would use my employee discount to stay at the 4 star brand that was part of the same company, and the most noticeable difference was in the staffing. My 3 star property had “normal hours” for maintenance, housekeeping, restaurant, and bar staff, and if a guest wanted/needed something outside of those hours, it would be on the front desk to basically find a “bodge job” that would be good enough. The 4 star properties I stayed at had someone available, or at least on-call, who could do that thing that was specific to their department.
I’ve only stayed in one 5 star property, but they took it one step further by just *doing the thing*. Whatever that thing might be, they would find it, and do it, without being asked. I stayed at that 5 star for a week-long vacation. Came in from the airport on their shuttle, didn’t have to retrieve my bags – they put them in my room while I was checking in. On day 1, I decided to wear my suit. Day 2 was a jeans and tee kind of day, and I left the suit hanging over the desk chair so it didn’t get too horribly messed up. When I came back to my room after day 2, the suit had been dry cleaned, pressed, hung back up, and someone even fixed a hole that had developed in the breast pocket. My dress shoes had been polished, and they cleaned my boaters, even removing a scuff that I had tried and failed to get rid of. I didn’t ask them to do that, they just made it happen. The day before I was scheduled to check out, while I was out on the town, they laundered all of my clothes. Sure, a 4 star will do that if you ask, but they just did it – that level of service was par for the course for them. It was also all part of the service, and didn’t cost me anything beyond my room costs. After the first night, every time I went to the lobby bar, the bartender already had my drink waiting for me. When I went to their high end bar/restaurant one night, the bartender down there knew exactly what I liked, and had her own recommendation of a “high-class” version. I’m not a famous celebrity, or a big money spender, or really anything other than an average guy, but they made me feel like an A-lister. That’s what makes a 5 star stand out – how they make you feel.
In the triple-A world (“Diamond” ratings), https://www.aaa.com/diamonds/diamond-ratings-definitions.html is their overview.
I don’t have one at hand any more, but their travel guides go in to more detail as to what you can expect for 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-diamond ratings — and they are (or were) different for hotels, restaurants, and resorts.
There are rules for each star system. 5-stars from Jim Bob’s Travel Guide isn’t the same as a Michelin five star review.
I think I’m correct when I’m saying that the Michelin system actually has a limit on how big the hotel can be, how many rooms. I think Bellagio was trying to challenge that back when it opened, and I don’t think they ever got the full five stars. I do remember there was this whole thing about how they noticed that most of the people using the seating areas by the front desk weren’t actually hotel guest, just people coming in to view the glass sculpture on the ceiling and the conservatory who camped out there. They removed the couches. But then one of the requirements for the Michelin five star system was something about seating in the lobby, so they put it all back.
The couches are still there.
While there are no universal definitions, AAA publishes their definitions:
[https://www.aaa.com/diamonds/diamond-ratings-definitions.html](https://www.aaa.com/diamonds/diamond-ratings-definitions.html)
One Diamond means a bed, a pillow and a bargain. Two Diamonds mean a familiar, casual, affordable setting. Three Diamonds deliver the comforts of home, minus the effort. Four Diamonds provide a notable splurge for a special occasion. And Five Diamonds are the crown jewel.
Most things have been mentioned so far. From the very lowest you add things like a coffee maker in your room, bottled water, a fridge, hairdryer etc. As you go up you get more amenities like a pool, gym, spa, nice restaurant etc. The services also increase, you start out by adding a 24h reception, dry cleaning, porters etc.
Many of the features of a higher star rating I believe are largely unnoticed by regular tourists, the stars don’t necessarily correlate with quality as you’d expect. There are some really lovely 2 star places, usually small, very little service (with narrow check in times, front door locked at night etc). There are very mediocre quality 4 star hotels designed to cater to business – the hotel can provide a lot of services such as arranging hire cars, conference rooms, same day drycleaning, airport transport etc. My last 4 star Hotel was for business, it was nothing special in quality but they had parcel postage and letter forwarding included in the price, as an example. They also arranged for a hire van and went to collect it and parked it at the hotel for me. I checked in at 2am without issue and they still had people available to help with luggage to the room at that time.
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