What Are the Requirements to Be a Five-Star

Hotel?
One of the most-asked questions from travelers is about the hotel rating system because they
wonder what makes a five-star hotel better than a two- or three-star hotel. The rating itself depends
on a number of factors including the service and amenities of the hotel.

Service
1. Service in a five-star hotel is above average. The hotel should offer housekeeping 24 hours
a day, information for guests and discounts on local attractions.
Room Features
2. For a hotel to be rated with five stars, it must have expensive and quality furnishing and
decorations such as 400-count sheets. The rating also requires that in-room video, a CD player or
stereo and a Jacuzzi tub be in the room.
Hotel Amenities
3. The hotel itself should have more than one restaurant at the location and the restaurants are
expected to offer gourmet foods. They're also required to have room service that's open 24 hours a
day.
Staff
4. The staff at a five-star hotel is expected to be the best they can. The hotel should have a
high ratio of staff to guests.
Hotel Features
5. For a five-star rating a hotel needs a concierge, valet parking and
a fitness center, health center or spa. Many of these hotels also offer other services such as a casino,
lounge or nightclub.

Standard Operating Procedure for Hotels

In the hotel industry where excellent, consistent service is a key factor in success, standard
operating procedures, or SOPs, play an important role.

Identification
1. A hotel's standard operating procedure sets out the policies and protocols of a hotel in a
written format that's easily accessible to hotel employees. A typical standard operating procedure
has three parts: a purpose, or the clearly stated task the SOP details and what its expected results
should be; a procedure, or step-by-step guide to tackling the task; and resources, including hotel
staff, other employees or management and databases or other references.
Function
2. A hotel standard operating procedure's purpose is to improve guest experience. Standard
operating procedures do this by educating hotel staff on the best way to deal with a given situation,
 from fielding guest complaints to handling fire drills. By creating a guest service structure that's
consistent and clearly thought out by top management, hotels can ensure a positive guest
experience.
Types
3. Hotels might use several different types of standard operating procedures.

Tool procedures focus on specific tasks that hotel staffers might have to deal with. Tool procedures
may cover tasks that hotel staff is likely to run into every day, such as late check-out or temperature
concerns, as well as rare circumstances, such as fire alarms sounding or elevator malfunctions.

Rule procedures help hotel staffers deal with potentially tricky situations. Rule procedures may cover
acceptable employee conduct, such as whether an employee can accept a cash tip from a hotel
guest. Rule procedures also may cover guests in sensitive areas such as signs of smoking in a
nonsmoking room or a declined credit card.

Job procedures clearly outline an employee's role and responsibilities within the hotel so that
expectations are clear.
Benefits
4. According to HVS, a consulting and service organization that focuses on the hotel and
leisure industry, standard operating procedures benefit hotels in a number of ways.

In the competitive hotel industry, a standard operating procedure ensures that a hotel keeps the
promises made in its marketing materials and advertisements. Standard operating procedures also
ensure that guests get the same treatment each time they visit the hotel. A thorough SOP can help
employers with posting future job openings because each employee's role is clearly outlined. Having
SOPs also provides a foundation for hotel employees' performance evaluations.
Considerations
5. Standard operating procedures may take as long as three months to complete, since in order
to be successful they must be tested and evaluated extensively. Hotel standard operating
procedures are most successful when employees participate in their creation.
6. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
7. Visitor Policy During Major Training Events
8.
9. 1. Purpose
10. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the standardization,
preparation and management of visitors during major training events at JWC. A major
training event is defined as a major exercise scheduled as part of the JWC POW ie.
STEADFAST series or ISAF. This SOP outlines visit request procedures and sponsor
responsibilities.
11.
12. 2. General
13. During a major event the JWC focus is to provide NATO with the most advanced,
effective and efficient operational level training in preparation for operations. Visits
during this period should support the JWC focus. Visits to the exercise area should not
disrupt the rhythm of the EXCON and training of the primary training audience, nor
adversely impact logistical support (There are periods where military and commercial
accommodation is very limited).
14.
15. 3. Visit Categories
16. A visitor is defined as a person who does not have a CE line number. Proper visit
procedures must be followed by all including Distinguished Visitors (DVs) (OF-6 and
above/civilian equivalent and those invited by the JWC Command Group), and visitors
(OF-5 and below/civilian equivalent) initiating contact requesting a visit.
17.
18. (a) DVs - JWC Protocol will coordinate and execute DV transportation and billeting
itinerary requirements (including dates, times, coordinate requirements for drivers, hotel
requests, etc) through the establishment of a Joint Visitors Bureau (JVB). The JVB will
coordinate all requirements through the Real Life Support Office (RLSO), allowing as
much notice as possible for planning. Protocol will ensure that all DVs report to the
RLSO for inprocessing and ensure that funds are collected for meals from all DVs
(including their guests and staff) who will be dining at the JWC training facility. The
detailed planning and execution of the Protocol program and procedures will be the
responsibility of the JVB.
19.
20. (b) Visitors (OF-5 and below/civilian equivalent) – all other visitors and
observers are required to complete and provide the necessary information as detailed on
the JWC PAF. The JWC will consider all visit requests to confirm their relevance to the
event and to ensure that the overall numbers do not adversely impact the event; JWC
will inform potential visitors whether approval has been granted. Those wishing to visit
the event should wait until the Visit Request is approved by the JWC COS before
committing funds. A PAF lacking the necessary information in paragraph 6 (purpose,
requirement, JWC host) will be returned to the requestor in order to obtain all necessary
information.
21.
22. 4. Procedures
23. The Visitor PAFs are to be submitted to JWC RLS who will collate all requests and staff
them accordingly within JWC to the relevant Div Chief. JWC RLS will collate all
requests for visit from Div Chiefs, confirm that the numbers of visitors are supportable
and submit to JWC COS with both the JWC Chief RLS and Div Chief’s recommendation
for consideration/approval. Once JWC COS has approved the visit, JWC RLS will
inform the visitor accordingly. The respective JWC host will have the responsibility to
develop a visit program to meet the visit objectives. In order to minimize disruptions to
the exercise, JWC Hosts should synchronize programs through the JVB to maximize
efficiency. A suggested visit program is as follow: