The booking platform Booking.com has launched its own quality rating system for holiday apartments, holiday homes and villas. Booking.com is currently available in 43 languages and offers a total of over 29 million accommodation entries, of which more than 6.2 million entries are holiday homes, holiday apartments and other accommodation.
Today's travelers have more choices than ever before when choosing accommodation. While the star classification for hotel ratings is known worldwide and is used to evaluate and compare hotel quality, there has not been a comparable rating system for travelers looking for a stay in alternative accommodation, such as a holiday home or apartment, until now.
Founded in 1996 as a small Dutch start-up in Amsterdam, Booking.com has become the largest e-commerce company in the travel industry worldwide. Since an average of seven guests on the platform check into a holiday home, holiday apartment or other accommodation every second, Booking.com decided to offer a "globally consistent and objective quality rating system" for holiday homes, holiday apartments and villas. The rating system is now available on the platform.
Global Scale Should Be Easy to Understand
Similar to a star classification in hotel ratings, which objectively evaluates hotels based on specific quality criteria, the new quality rating for holiday apartments, holiday homes and villas on Booking.com was designed to fill a gap in the travel industry. It is designed to provide a global benchmark that travelers can easily understand and rely on to find accommodation that meets their quality requirements more easily.
According to the platform, 39 percent of global travelers in 2020 prefer to stay in a holiday home or apartment rather than a hotel. Furthermore, the "star rating" is one of the most frequently used filters on the booking platform. This has prompted the company to supplement the missing classification.
How Quality Assessment Works
The quality rating system uses a machine-learning algorithm that takes into account more than 400 factors such as the location of the accommodation, size and facilities. This should enable travelers to better recognize the quality and comfort of accommodation worldwide and make it easier for them to choose their holiday accommodation.
Yellow tile symbols from 1 to 5, clearly indicating the different levels of quality, are located next to each accommodation facility on Booking.com. The quality assessment results are compared with accommodation in the vicinity to ensure that the results are locally relevant, and they are recalculated throughout the year to ensure their accuracy, the booking platform informs.
The USA, Greece, Spain, Italy and France lead the list of countries with the highest number of top results (5 out of 5). Travelers from Saudi Arabia, Australia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and China top the list of nationalities that most often select the best rated holiday apartments, holiday homes or villas, according to the reservation platform.