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In April 1990, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) announced the first star-ranking of hotels in China. At that time, the Shanghai Hilton, the White Swan Hotel, and China Hotel in Guangzhou were named as China's first five-star hotels. The National Hotel Evaluation Committee (NHEC), which operates under the CNTA, also named nine four-star hotels, 28 three-star hotels, 35 two-star hotels, and 35 one-star hotels as the country's first official star-class hotels.(1) This article examines the rating criteria used by NHEC in the first phase of rating and ranking the tourist hotels in China and provides some insight into this hotel-rating program.
The rating of international tourist hotels in China under the five-star system has been a long process. CNTA launched this program four years ago with the two-fold purpose of enhancing the hotel-management and service standards of tourist hotels in China and protecting the interests of hoteliers, travel companies, and consumers.(2)To make China's tourist hotels meet international standards while still reflecting China's national or regional characteristics, the NHEC, after consulting with many internationally renowned experts and investigating hotel-management policies in many countries, developed its own hotel-rating program based on a five-star rating system.
THE CRITERIA
The rating criteria are generally based on architecture, decoration, facilities, maintenance, management level, service quality, and level of service.(3) The criteria developed by NHEC require evaluations in the following six categories: (1) architecture and level of service, (2) facilities, (3) maintenance, (4) sanitation and hygiene, (5) service quality, and (6) guest satisfaction.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. The category "architecture and service levels" involves an evaluation of hotels by their managers or owners. The NHEC has established...