To be Rated or Not to be Rated?

This is the hot debate which is raging all over the UK at the moment. To the uninitiated it may seem something that had never occured to you but it is splitting the accommodation industry in half. Back in the olden days before the internet all there was to help you decide where to stay was 3 things 1. the AA handbook 2. the Visit Britain handbook (from now on refered to as VB) and the tourist information of whereever you were going. Usually people bought one of the books read through the description looked at one maybe two tiny pictures (if that) and made the best decision they could based on that information. That is where the Stars/crowns/diamonds came in you knew approximately what you were getting and that 4 was better than 1. However those days are long gone. With the Birth of the internet things have changed dramatically in a very short space of time. Your information is accessable all over the world 24 hours a day, you can have as many pictures as you like and you can read a multitude of reviews from people who have stayed before you and what they got for their money, their thoughts and pictures. The vast quantity of information avaliable to help the consumer make their decision is astonishing. So there used to be one incentive to stay rated it was backed by the government who insisted that you be rated to work with government agencies and tourist informations. With the advent of the new tourism statement published by the Department of culture, media and sport in March they have removed all official backing from rating schemes. Therefore accommodation businesses are looking again at their marketing budgets and deciding this is money they don't need to spend. For myself a 12 bed Guest Accommodation it works out about £600 a year and that is with VB and the AA is more expensive though they do hold to higher standards. For myself I rejoined VB in order to work with the Harrogate International Conference Center Booking Agency which has now closed its accommodation booking arm so there is no longer any one I work with requires me to be rated. However some areas are bringing in a minimum standards scheme which will have someone come and check you reach minimum standards and then you are fine to work with the TIC I am in favour of this if it is a reasonable price but we will see how it goes.