Quality of Swiss hotels put to the test
Hotel guests are to have their say on the quality of bed and board in Switzerland thanks to a new online rating system launched by tourism chiefs.
It is hoped that feedback from customers will increase competitiveness in the hotel sector and lead to an improvement in the quality of services offered.
Guests can award hotels marks or “suns” for everything from location and service through to the quality of their food. Six suns means “excellent”, while one sun equals “unsatisfactory”.
Swiss Tourism director Jürg Schmid says the online platform should make it easier for visitors to Switzerland to find a hotel that suits their needs and which is unlikely to hold too many surprises.
The service is available in English, German, French, with Italian in the pipeline.
“The long-term goal is to increase turnover in the tourism sector in order to create new jobs in [Switzerland] and secure existing ones,” Schmid told swissinfo.
According to Schmid, the initiative will complement the existing star-rating system for hotels, which is carried out by hotelleriesuisse, Switzerland’s hotel owners’ association.
“The star system classifies hotels based on quality, infrastructure and price, whereas the new rating system will help customers find the appropriate guest house within a star category,” he said.
2,000 hotels reviewed
Switzerland Tourism, the national tourist board, is planning to take stock of the usefulness of the project, in which more than 2,000 hotels are participating, within the next 12 months.
Depending on the outcome, the new rating system may then be extended to other areas of the tourism sector.
Schmid said the online platform would put the spotlight on quality, indicating whether an establishment was top-notch or below average. Swiss hotels have often been criticised as poor value for money.
“Through feedback from guests, you will soon find out which hotels offer or lack a particular feature,” he explained.
Improve services
Schmid added that hotel owners also stood to benefit since they would soon find out where they needed to sharpen their act.
“I think that receiving negative feedback should be seen as an incentive to make improvements,” he said.
But he emphasised that only hotels which offered good value for money or were located in prime tourist spots stood a good chance of surviving, irrespective of the rating system.
Schmid said that online rating systems where customers could voice their opinion would become more important in the future.
“We are convinced that such systems will increasingly serve as information sources for tourists,” he added.
He pointed out that online evaluation systems, which were very common in other business sectors, had proved to be credible and reliable.
“It is [the tourism board’s] task to make Switzerland’s presence felt on the online market,” said Schmid.
swissinfo, Katalin Fekete
The Swiss tourist board has launched an online hotel evaluation system as part of the hospitality and quality initiative “Enjoy Switzerland”.
The initiative, in which more than 2,000 Swiss hotels are participating, has been developed in close cooperation with hotelleriesuisse and Gastrosuisse, the hotel and restaurant owners’ associations.
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