As President Muhammadu Buhari gets set to inaugurate what is being dubbed Nigeria’s first 7-Star Hotel, the question of who rates hotels, and if a self-rating system should be significant enough to earn the President’s attention, remains largely unanswered.
The Fraser Suites, located in the Central Business District, Abuja will be inaugurated in an invite-only event on May 9, 2018.
Aside from the President, the Hotel says there will be members of the diplomatic corps, heads of international multilateral agencies, regional bodies and international non-governmental organisations. This high level of representation from government and international agencies is justified, at least by the media, with the ranking of the hotel as 7-Star.
Not even Burj Al Arab
Built on water in the sense that an Island was constructed for it, Burj Al Arab is usually referred to as the world’s first 7 star hotel but without a standard body to judge, this claim is heavily disputed. Although the Hotel was named the most luxurious hotel in the world by readers of The Telegraph Travel Magazine, Fiona Duncan, the Telegraph’s hotel expert, says what explains why it is good Al Arab is not claiming to be 7-Star
“The only thing that a hotel claiming to be ‘six’ or ‘seven stars’ does for me is to put me off going there…there is no international rating for hotels and therefore the use of six and seven stars is meaningless, and simply a short cut to saying that a hotel is bigger, flashier, glossier and glitzier than the norm.”
Burj Al Arab, which was opened in 1998, has a Butler assigned to every room. There are over 1,600 of such staff from 75 countries, a figure which represents the highest Staff to Suite ratio in the world. These are aside it’s extensive VIP services a world-class gym.
Despite its size, Burj Al Arab holds only 28 double-story floors which accommodate 202 bedroom suites. Customers can take a helicopter in just for the view. A critic once described the hotel saying
“This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth.”
Official Rating
There is no international body to rate hotels, but some countries have rating by a single public standard. These countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Hungary, have laws defining the hotel rating.
The UK also has a standard system of rating. It rates hotels based on services and facilities, quality of the welcome, service and hospitality of the staff, food and cleanliness. But rating of hotels has however been left to customers in most cases, including the UK. The norm seems to be that customers rate hotels using stars or letters.
Nigeria has no official standard and a number of not so organized private websites through which hotel rooms can be Booked and Rated, with no set standard.
In all countries where there are standard for rating, the highest rate is a 5-Star Hotel. This explains why even Burj Al Arab is being questioned for its 7-Star media rating. The Hotel has denied calling itself 7-Star and claims it never uses it in its advertisement. It ascribed the rating to an unnamed British journalist.
Fraser’s Suite so far
Fraser Suites’ Marketing Communications Advisor, Haroun Audu, in a statement on Friday, stated that the 126 guest rooms in the hotel were designed for the contemporary business traveler, has modern facilities and high-speed Wi-Fi and Internet-enabled television, among others.
“Created to convey a sophisticated residence in the city, the hotel’s 126 suites each come with Nespresso coffee machines, kitchenette and luxurious L’Occitane bathroom amenities,” he said.
Guests are to be entertained by the blazing fast Wi-Fi, the Internet-enabled television and the welcoming ambience of the hotel.
Fraser’s Suites also has swimming pools for adults and children, a gymnasium for the health-conscious, as well as a lounge and a restaurant offering Nigerian and continental dishes.
Developed and promoted by the international real estate developer and investor, Royal Pacific Group, the hotel has won within six months of operation the globally acclaimed World Luxury Hotel Awards and was adjudged the Global Winner for Luxury Business Serviced Apartments, both in 2017.
