Full Service, Luxury, Limited Service, First Class, Select Service, Focused Service, Extended Stay, etc, etc.

The industry, as well as the hotel rating agencies and internet intermediaries, have managed to create a sufficient number of "classes" of hotels to not only confuse their guests, but the hotel companies themselves. And depending on to whom you talk, everyone has a different interpretation of what each of these classes mean. Then you add in 4-star, 4-diamond vs 3-star/diamond; we toss those ratings around when describing properties, not even referring to their "official" rating by Mobil and AAA. How many of us have fought with Priceline.com about their classification of our hotels, which directly affect a significant amount of potential revenue?

And then we come to boutique hotels; the confusion around what classifies a boutique hotel makes the issue with "conventional" hotels look like a walk in the park. Those of us in the boutique/lifestyle end of the business have been struggling with this challenge every since the term became popular in the early 1980's. What's most aggravating is that despite the growing popularity and numbers of boutique hotels around the country, and the world, hardly any of the rating agencies and intermediaries have created ...