Originally Posted by
Thalassa
I am usually at a little bit of a loss when giving numerical ratings at TA; even with a scale of 0-5 it is practically impossible to fit in very different hotels in the same scale. So I have resorted to giving my ratings in relation to the hotel class and typical price -- i.e. I have rated a mediocre Ritz-Carlton stay lower than a surprisingly nice stay at a small two-star place even though the hotels and their amenities as such are not really comparable.
I'm sure that most people end up rating hotels relative to their expectations rather than on some grand worldwide scale. This is why a particularly nice instance of an Embassy Suites or somesuch might end up being the top-rated hotel in a city--it's not because it's better than the local Four Seasons, but because it delivers better relative reviewers' expectations than the Four Seasons did. This doesn't make the rankings or the reviews meaningless--if you're looking for something like an Embassy Suites, you'd be probably be wise to pick the one in Portland. If you're looking for a real luxury hotel, the written comments and scores can still give you a sense of what you might expect at a particular property even if they absolute numbers aren't useful for direct comparisons of economy vs. mid-tier business vs. luxury hotels.