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Hotels provide private serviced rooms for guests. They range from very basic budget-style to extremely luxurious accommodation.

	hotels Travel Guide : 1 Room types 2 Star ratings 2.1 Six and seven-star hotels 2.2 Five-star hotels 2.3 Four-star hotels 2.4 Three-star hotels 2.5 Two-star hotels 2.6 One-star hotels 2.7 Unrated hotels 3 International Brands 4 Loyalty clubs

Room types

• Single rooms are for single travellers. In many hotels, a single room actually the same as a double room.
• Double rooms are for two travellers sleeping in the same bed.
• Twin rooms have two separate single beds.
• Triple rooms have either three separate bed, or a double bed plus a single bed.
• Suites are complete apartments with multiple rooms, intended for long stays — or just people with money to burn.

There is considerable variation and many frills within these basic types, the rule of thumb being that the more you pay, the larger your room becomes. Some business-oriented hotels offer an executive level, where a steep premium gets you access into an airline-style lounge and typically some perks like "free" Internet access or pay-per-view movies. Naming for these rooms varies, with eg. the Kuala Lumpur Hilton (http://kuala-lumpur.hilton.com) dubbing even its cheapest rooms as "Deluxe" and the next category up being "Executive" — but you need to upgrade one more step to an "Executive Suite" if you want to actually get the executive level perks.

Star ratings

The guide below is by necessity a generalization, as star ratings are awarded by each country according to their own rules, and the difference between a 3-star and a 4-star may be something as obscure as having a minibar in each room. It's also worth noting that star ratings are often 'sticky', in the sense that once awarded they're rarely taken away: a four-star built last year is probably still pretty good, but a four-star opened in 1962 and never renovated since may well have turned into a dump.

Six and seven-star hotels

The notion is that a hotel can be six or seven stars is a joke among travel professionals since most respectable hotel rating systems do not give out a rating higher than five stars. The Mobil Travel Guide awarded the Five Star rating to only 32 hotels in 2006. The consensus is since so few hotels really can achieve the five star rating then there shouldn't be a rating higher than five stars.

An example of a self-proclaimed "seven star" hotel is Dubai's Burj al-Arab (http://www.burj-al-arab.com/). It's certainly a luxury hotel, but the marketing department at the hotel awarded itself the fictional honor — perhaps to justify why a single night starts at US$1000.

Five-star hotels

The five-star hotels is the quintessential luxury hotel, offering frills above and beyond the actual needs of the travel. Five-star hotels tend to have opulent and expensive decorations; fancy gyms, swimming pools and spas; plus restaurants that serve food good enough to draw non-guests to sample it too. Major five-star chains compete to offer the most ludicrous frills imaginable: Westin touts its Heavenly Bed mattresses, while Conrad will let you order from a menu of pillows. Needless to say, all this comes at a steep price, and you're unlikely to be able to justify the expense of a five-star for ordinary business travel. The other downside to five-stardom is that hotels that can jump through all the hoops to achieve the rating are likely to be large and impersonal.

Major chains: Conrad (Hilton), St. Regis, Westin and W (Starwood), Intercontinental, JW Marriott, Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, Sofitel, Four Seasons

Four-star hotels

The four-star hotel is a good business hotel. Everything works smoothly, there's Internet in every room, a well-equipped business center, they'll arrange your airport transfer and room service is palatable and only somewhat expensive. And your boss will probably not faint when they see the bill.

Major chains: Hilton, Marriott, Novotel, Crowne Plaza (Intercontinental)

Three-star hotels

Three-star hotels are solid but dull. Your room will have an attached bathroom and there's probably a restaurant downstairs and 24-hour reception service.

Major chains: Courtyard by Marriott, Ibis, Holiday Inn, Mercure

Two-star hotels

Two stars means no-frills hotel. In most countries two stars means that your room probably has its own bathroom and there's probably a TV and telephone in your room, but rooms are bare-bones and you're unlikely to want to spend any more time than strictly necessary inside.

Major chains: Comfort Inn, Motel 6, Super 8

One-star hotels

You don't see many of these, and with reason. One-stars are not just no-frills, but often downright dodgy: rooms are barely functional, shared bathrooms are somewhere down a corridor and the painted ladies from the all-hours karaoke bar next door dance the horizontal tango all night long in the room next to yours.

Major chains: Formule 1 and Etap (Accor)

Unrated hotels

Unrated hotels are a mixed bag. Most, it is safe to say, are hotels that are either too dodgy achieve even the meager requirements of a one-star — or, alternatively, too small and personal to be able to offer (say) 24-hour room service, although the service and amenities offered are otherwise of five-star caliber.

International Brands

• Accor From the luxury Sofitel brand to the basic Etap and Motel 6 brands Accor is the most varied hotel company. Even Accor's Compagnie des Wagons-Lits subsidy provides hotel services for trains. Accor Hotels is probably the most established company in Europe and offers great choices for the backpacker and the discerning guests. Accor Hotels 1 (http://www.accorhotels.com) Compagnie des Wagons-Lits2 (http://www.wagons-lits.com)

• Hilton Hotels are operated by two different companies one in North America and the other everywhere else throughout the world. Hotels include Conrad, Hilton, Doubletree, Hampton Inn, and Embassy Suites. 3 (http://www.hilton.com)

• InterContinental hotels include the franchised Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and of course InterContinental hotels. There have been some reported problems with the franchised Crowne Plaza brand, and some guests have alleged that service at InterContinental owned and managed hotels is superior to Crowne Plaza hotels, which, are franchised out by InterContinental. 4 (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com)

• Marriott hotels include Renaissance, J.W. Marriott, plain old Marriott, Ritz Carlton (Neither the Marriott website or Ritz Calton's boast of this fact, however, Marriott's reservation number can reserve a Ritz Carlton hotel for you), Fairfield Inn and other hotels. Marriott (http://www.marriott.com|) and Ritz Carlton (http://www.ritzcarlton.com|)

• Loews Hotels is a smaller luxury chain with several locations in the U.S. and Canada.5 (http://www.loewshotels.com/)

• Four Seasons is arguably the best hotel chain with 9 Four Seasons hotels being rated as five star by the Mobil Travel Guide and receieved numerous awards from J.D. Power and Associates. 6 (http://www.fourseasons.com/index.html)

• Millennium-Copthorne Hotels

• Starwood Hotels is one of the more presigious brand names. Its hotels include Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, Luxury Collection, W Hotels. Additionally, the Starwood Hotels and Resorts company recently purchased the luxurious Le Meridien chain, however, some properties may not be available on Starwood's website so guests may have to visit the Le Meridien website. Starwood Hotels and Resorts 7 (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/) Le Meridien 8 (http://www.lemeridien.com/)

• NH Hotels is primarily based in Europe, but has several locations in Africa, and South American countries where other chains have not invested in like Cuba, Chile, and Uruquay. 9 (http://www.nh-hotels.com)

Loyalty clubs

These clubs are designed to keep a customer loyal to one chain and often include various rewards such as: Free rooms/nights in a hotel, Airline miles, Free room upgrades, Movies, music, tickets, golf clubs, and gift certificates to stores.

Some of the more known loyalty clubs are:

• Marriott Rewards good at Marriott owned hotels 10 (http://marriott.com/rewards)
• Priority Club is good for use at InterContinental chain hotels (Including Holiday Inn) 11 (http://priorityclub.com)
• Hilton HHonors allows guests to "double dip", earning both hotel points and airline miles for the same stay" and is good at Hilton hotels. 12 (http://hhonors.hilton.com)
• SPG is for all Starwood hotels andresorts. Build points towards free nights, room service and room ugrades. You also get discounts on rooms. 13 (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/offers/index.html)

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