When the AA joined with the RAC diamonds were replaced with AA stars for all accommodation whether Guest House or Hotel. This was very nice but we were not a 5 star hotel and so people were a bit confused. Guest Houses (bed & breakfast) are not in the hotel category of any of the booking sites.

As the business grew over the years adding more rooms bars a restaurant and a banqueting suite it was apparent to our customers that we were now a hotel and not a guest house.

Last year we applied for hotel status from the AA. This accreditation assesses all the facilities we offer but because most of our rooms are conversions from stables and agricultural buildings they were not large enough to meet the AA room size criteria for us to be given more than 3 stars.

Even so to become an hotel I had to install telephones in all the rooms and provide room service.

Now customers think we have been downgraded from 5*stars to 3 when this is an upgrade from b&b status to Hotel! To quote a recent customer “there is no way you are only 3*”

So I have decided to stop paying for AA accreditations and let my customers review me on line. This I think is the modern way.