Are guests of the same opinion as the hotel star-rate classification system?

Abstract Hotel classification systems have been questioned on some occasions due to the loss of credibility of stars as a quality standard and because they are sometimes subject to outdated criteria. In any case, this system allows reducing the adverse effects of asymmetric information, characterized in a market such as the hospitality industry. With a sample of more than 14,000 hotels in 100 cities around the world taken from two of the most important tourism websites as are Booking and TripAdvisor, we ascertained whether the star-rating classification system of hotels, room price, or even hotel size, match user satisfaction measured from the point of view the scores awarded by past users. The results confirm that despite the differences in criteria in implementing the hotel star-rate classification system throughout the world, a relationship does exist with user satisfaction, based on the scores awarded by former customers both on TripAdvisor and on Booking. In turn, price is related to hotel category and with satisfaction. However, the number of rooms does not influence the score awarded, although depending on the region, there is a relationship between hotel size and category. We conclude that the hotel classification system adequately fulfils its function as customer ratings increase with each additional star, just as price is also related with both aspects. The main contribution of this study is that the results concern hotels from around the world comparing them with the views of customers expressed on TripAdvisor and Booking.