External survey - Study on the feasibility of possible initiatives at EU level on quality of tourism accommodation services

A survey is being conducted on behalf of the European Commission to assess whether and, if any, what kind of policy initiatives could be set up at EU level to improve consumers’ understanding of hotel ratings and ensure a degree of harmonization to ensure comparability and consistency across the EU.

The results of the survey will shape a study on ‘the feasibility of possible initiatives at EU level on quality of tourism accommodation services’ to be delivered by VVA Consultants to the European Commission. Further background info is .

By ‘hotel ratings’, the survey covers two separate issues:  

• Hotel star rating systems: usually using established criteria and inspection arrangements to assess the level of facilities and/or service from one to five stars, such as the HSU system.
• Consumer reviews and ratings on online platforms: usually supported by ‘star’ or other rating systems, either developed by the on-line platform independently or by using official/independent rating schemes.

The study does not explore the comparability between the two systems, but rather the hotel star rating systems across different countries and online review and rating schemes across different platforms.

The survey

The online survey form is available here: https://www.surveygizmo.eu/s3/90269888/Study-on-the-feasibility-of-possible-initiatives-at-EU-level-on-quality-of-tourism-accommodation-services

HOTREC is disseminating this survey on behalf of VVA Consultants. HOTREC warmly encourages its Member to complete this survey and forward the survey link to hotelier members. This is an opportunity to highlight that the European hospitality industry favours:

• A bottom-up industry-led approach to elaborate hotel star rating systems (and rejection of a top-down EU level measure to harmonise star rating in Europe)
• A more reliable, transparent and consistent approach to online user ratings and reviews.

The online survey mainly consists of multiple-choice questions. It is possible to skip certain replies. For reference, you can download a pdf version of the survey questionnaire here (please note that survey responses will only be valid for the online version of the questionnaire):

The deadline to respond to the survey is estimated for mid-November.

Next steps

The survey is being undertaken in the context of a “Study on the feasibility of possible initiatives at EU level and establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform on quality of tourism accommodation services” commissioned by European Commission’s DG GROW.

HOTREC and HSU are actively taking part in the above-mentioned multi-stakeholder platform which will meet on several occasions in 2020 and 2021. The expected outcome of this survey and the platform’s work is a report to the European Commission on ways forward for hotel star ratings and online reviews.

Please note that the final question of the survey opens the possibility to be contacted by VVA Consultants for a follow-up interview. HOTREC and HSU will be taking part in these interviews and we recommend that HOTREC Member associations and some hoteliers also take these interviews in order to ensure that the views of Europe’s hospitality industry are well-represented. The questionnaire for the follow-up interview is available here: