Forbes Travel Guide launches in London bringing its star-rating system to the top hotels and spas across the Capital.

Only six London hotels have been awarded with a coveted five-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide. These are: 45 Park Lane; Claridge’s; The Dorchester; The Lanesborough London; Four Seasons Hotel at Park Lane and The Savoy. Plus two London hotel spas have been awarded a five-star rating: The Spa at Four Seasons and The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, London.

Which means a number of London’s luxury hotels are notable by their failure to gain a five-star rating.

“Forbes announcement is likely to ruffle a few feathers amongst London hoteliers. Forbes is respected for its unique proposition of service based ratings that many customers will welcome, but it will be interesting to see if Forbes Rating System is embraced by the hospitality industry.

We have first hand experience with some of these brands and know they invest significantly in their internal communications and colleague development programmes for service excellence. We wait to see what impact this will have on staff development and the level of service we can expect from hotels.” Gregg Hone, Director electricjelly and Evolve Founder

We caught up with Jayne E. Griswold, Executive Vice President, Forbes Travel Guide, and asked the following questions:

What makes the six London 5* hotels different?

“The properties who have achieved the Forbes Travel Guide Five Star award have exceeded guests’ expectations at every turn. Their staff are fully engaged in the guest experience and have rigorously studied what their guests are looking for and invested deeply in training their teams to understand and deliver against their guest’s expectations.”

What impact do you expect this announcement will have on the other ‘5-star properties’ {according to other ratings providers} across the capital?

“Our hope is that by announcing the Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings in London that it will establish a level set against the average guest experience. Our practice is to evaluate all properties equally and to conduct a rigorous 2 night/3 day inspection that covers approximately 500 service standards plus an additional set of facility-based standards. Our hope is that the results will be met with respectful understanding of our detailed and rigorous process.”

The Forbes Travel Guide star-rating system has been a gold standard in the global hotel industry since 1958 and is different because it is heavily focused on service – taking the guess work out of hotel bookings for the discerning traveller. Professional anonymous inspectors evaluate each hotel against more than 550 service criteria alongside the standard of the building and its facilities to create the ratings system.

From launch, travellers will be able to access full free reviews of the top London hotels via Startle.com. Forbes also offers to partner with the hotels through the Global Star Rating Program to help them understand the rating they have received and identify areas for improvement in the next evaluation to enhance their guests experience and subsequently their rating.