New catalogue of criteria from 2025 // Armenia appointed as an associate member // Markus Luthe re-elected as HSU president.
(Brussels, 25 October 2023) On the occasion of their 6th General Assembly on 25 October, the members of the Hotelstars Union in Brussels made important decisions on expanding the common hotel classification in Europe.
Armenia was newly admitted to the circle of member countries of the Hotelstars Union. Since May of this year, the country had observer status and was now declared an associate member of the Hotelstars Union after only six months. "With Armenia, we now welcome another country from the Caucasus to our Stars family. We have gained an important tourism partner," HSU President Luthe welcomes Armenia as the 21st member of the HSU.
The members confirmed Markus Luthe (Germany) as the Hotelstars Union (HSU) president in the regular elections. The board of the Hotelstars Union is completed by Thomas Allemann (Switzerland) as Vice President, as well as George Micallef (Malta), Thierry Lemahieu (Belgium) and Jan Fischer (Denmark). All elections were unanimous. "In the past two years, we were able to set an important course for a successful future of the joint hotel classification with the expansion of marketing as well as a targeted revision of our joint criteria catalogue, but above all also through the admission of further members to the Hotelstars Union," explains the old and new President Markus Luthe on the occasion of his re-election.
At the committee meeting in the Belgian capital, a preliminary catalogue of criteria 2025 - 2030 was also adopted as a common basis for awarding the hotel stars in the member countries. "In addition to digitalisation, the future evaluation criteria are now even more strongly in the light of sustainability as well as the conservation of resources in the personnel sector," HSU President Luthe explains the new standards. "The revised criteria catalogue also offers increased flexibility, transparency and application security in hotel classification. In addition, we have worked out an even clearer distinction to private rentals." Every five years, the members of the Hotelstars Union put the criteria catalogue to the test so that the hotel classification does not lose its attractiveness and significance on the market. The current update of the criteria catalogue is to be completed in spring 2024. From 1 January 2025 at the latest, the new criteria will be mandatory for all 21 member countries of the Hotelstars Union and valid until 2030.
"Our harmonised hotel classification system is and remains at the cutting edge and will continue to offer orientation, transparency and high quality for guests and hoteliers in the future," emphasises HSU President Luthe. "We invite all hoteliers and the interested public to give us feedback on the preliminary criteria catalogue. All details can be found on hotelstars.eu from the 1st November 2023," says Luthe.
About Hotelstars Union
Under the patronage of HOTREC Hospitality Europe, the hotel associations of Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland form the Hotelstars Union. It was founded in 2009 and has been operating as an association under Belgian law with its headquarters in Brussels since 2021. The Hotelstars Union reliably classifies hotels in categories from 1 to 5 hotel stars according to a common catalogue of criteria in already 21 European countries. With already more than 22,000 classified hotels or 1.2 million classified hotel rooms in its member countries, it offers transparency, quality and security for guests and hoteliers. You can find detailed information at www.hotelstars.eu.
