Cottage Rating Schemes & Quality Assessments:
Remember when searching for country cottages that some agencies have their own schemes. Some agencies describe their accommodation as handpicked and many have an annual inspection process where they go out, inspect properties and rate them accordingly.
Within the UK there are also national schemes for each of the countries that make up the UK. These official national schemes are government run and involve an annual inspection process and a resulting rating.
Some holidaymakers like the assurance that an official rating can offer in terms of added confidence for some in terms of the standard of accommodation to expect. Others take a different view and find from personal experience that official ratings do not always necessarily guarantee that a property will meet expectations.
Holidaymakers should be aware that for properties to be officially inspected and graded means that the owner of the property must pay for that service. Not all owners opt to be inspected and graded under the national schemes which are not obligatory. An owner taking part in an annual inspection and being awarded a grading does display some sort of commitment to maintaining standards. However it should not necessarily be concluded that because a cottage has not opted to take part in a national scheme that it does not offer high quality accommodation. For the reasons stated above however some people do prefer to opt for officially graded country cottages.
Within the UK, the government bodies that run the official schemes are all essentially part of Visit Britain: Visit England, Visit Scotland and Visit Wales. The Irish have their own Failte Ireland scheme. With the main Visit Britain schemes the ratings where awarded, are between 1 and 5 stars. 1 star being the lowest award and 5 being the highest. The Failte Ireland scheme works on the same principle but the maximum award with this scheme is 4 stars. The rating schemes are set out to assess the quality of accommodation on offer.
Over recent years there has been a rise in travel review websites which do not officially inspect properties but instead collect online reviews from the public about self catering and hotel accommodation that they have stayed in. Some people find these websites useful whereas others read these reviews with a touch of scepticism, particularly if they have booked to stay in a hotel that has positive reviews on one of these websites, only to find out that in reality the hotel failed to live up to the hype.
Others trust personal recommendations and find these the best guide when it comes to quality and ratings. With friends and family you usually have a good idea about their views and expectations and can be well placed when it comes to deciding whether you trust the recommendation and share their views.
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