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Guide to Accommodation Ratings

Keswick and the Northern Lakes area offers traditional hospitality with a range of accommodation to suit all preferences, ages and pockets, located in the town centre, peaceful Lakeland villages or scenic valleys. On this website you will find a large selection of inspected and approved hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, pubs, farmhouses, caravan and touring parks and self catering accommodation.

National Inspection

Visit Britain and the AA, together with the Wales Tourist Board and Visit Scotland have worked together, with the support of the government, to agree, support and develop common standards for assessing the quality of serviced accommodation in Britain.

Hotels

The grading system for hotels uses a one to five star rating. Within the hotel category are designators that give a further indication of the style that can be expected. These include: Hotel, Country House, Small Hotel, Town House Hotel and Metro Hotel.

One Star: Smaller properties, privately owned and open seven days a week during the operating season. Simple, practical style accommodation with limited range of facilities and services. All bedrooms will have en-suite or private bath/shower rooms.
Two Stars: Smaller privately owned properties and small commercial hotels. Well presented accommodation offering a fair degree of space and convenience.
Three Stars: More formal style of hotel, likely to be larger with greater range of facilities and services. Bedroom accommodation will be more spacious and designed for comfort and convenient use. Service will be relatively formal, with a staffed reception desk.
Four Stars: Accommodation of a very high standard, offering a wide range of facilities and services, with quality to match. All bedrooms will be designed and furnished for comfort and ease of use with very good quality furniture, beds and soft furnishings. All rooms en-suite with at least half offering a bath in addition to shower facilities. Service will reflect the same quality and attention to detail. Access all day and night, facilitated by on-duty staff.
Five Stars: Accommodation of a luxury quality with services to match. Spacious bedrooms, suites and public areas. Selection of catering options all offering cuisine and service of the highest international quality. Open seven days a week, all year. All bedrooms with en-suite bathroom with bath.

Guest Accommodation

The grading system for guest accommodation uses a one to five star rating. The diamond ratings that were previously used are now being replaced with stars. Within the guest accommodation category are designators that will give customers a further indication of the style that can be expected. These include: B&B, Guest House, Guest Accommodation, Farmhouse, Inn and Restaurant with Rooms.

One Star: Simple, no-frills accommodation. Décor will be clean and furnishings fit for purpose.
Two Stars: Accommodation offering a good overall level of quality together with some facility and service enhancements.
Three Stars: A good level of quality in all areas. Bedrooms will offer a reasonable amount of space and comfort, e.g. access to both sides of double beds. Décor will show elements of co-ordination with the soft furnishings. Furniture will be more substantial and may provide additional facilities. En-suite facilities, where provided, may be compact but will be clean and well maintained.
Four Stars: Very good quality in all areas. Bedrooms will be more spacious with greater emphasis on quality of décor, furnishings, fixtures and fittings. At least half the bedrooms will have en-suite facilities.
Five Stars: Excellent quality accommodation with exceptional levels of hospitality. Bedrooms will offer ample space with excellent comfort and elements of luxury. High quality décor, furnishings and fittings will feature in all guest areas. All bedrooms will be en-suite or have private facilities, which will be fitted out with high quality sanitary ware and fixtures.

Self Catering

All properties have to meet an extensive list of minimum requirements to take part in the scheme. From there, increased levels of quality apply. For instance, you'll find acceptable quality at one star, good to very good quality at three stars and exceptional quality at five stars.

One Star: Simple style accommodation where all areas are safe and clean.
Two Star: Generally good overall quality of décor, furnishings and fixtures, which may be of a practical or older style. Space may be limited, particularly in bedrooms.
Three Star: Quality of décor and furnishings will demonstrate greater attention to co-ordination and practicality. More spacious accommodation offering greater levels of comfort and freedom of movement, e.g. access to both sides of double beds.
Four Star: Comfortable accommodation, decorated to a high standard. Usually more spacious with very good quality furniture, soft furnishings, beds and floorings. Bed linen and towels provided, with or without an additional charge.
Five Star: Excellent quality accommodation, demonstrating the best of its type available. A high specification evident in all areas. Attention to detail shown in design, both internal and external, with exemplary standards of care and maintenance. Sleeping in designated bedrooms only, i.e. no sofa beds.

Holiday Parks

The Star rating reflects the overall quality of the park and the highest rating of five stars is reserved for those parks of exceptional quality which also provide specific key facilities and services. Parks are visited annually by trained, impartial assessors. A rating of one to five stars is awarded, based on cleanliness, environment and the quality of facilities and service provided.

One star: To achieve this grade, the park must have acceptable levels of cleanliness with acceptable standards of maintenance and customer care.
Two stars: All the above points plus an improved level of landscaping, lighting, refuse disposal and maintenance. May be less expensive than more highly rated parks with a degree of practicality.
Three stars: Most parks fall within this category; three stars represent the industry standard. The range of facilities provided may vary from park to park, but they will be of a good standard and will be well maintained.
Four stars: Very good overall quality will be found at this level. You can expect careful attention to detail in the provision of all services and facilities. Four star parks rank among the industry's best.
Five stars: Excellent overall quality standards can be expected from parks with this grading. Highest levels of customer care will be provided. All facilities will be maintained in pristine condition in attractive surroundings.

Hostels and Camping Barns

Informal & friendly low cost accommodation. Supervised, clean and well run. Many hostels are self-catering only but meals are available at some establishments at all star levels. Hostels are rated from one to five stars providing progressively higher levels of quality and customer care. Camping barns provide extremely simple self-catering accommodation often referred to as 'stone tents'. Camping barns are not star rated and are assessed as being fit for the purpose.

Awards

Look out for additional merit awards, given to those establishments that not only achieve the overall quality required for their rating, but also reach the highest levels of quality in those areas that guests identify as being really important to them.

Visit Britain Silver Award: This award recognises high quality in all areas of the business, with very good levels of customer care.
Visit Britain Gold Award: Properties achieving a Gold award will demonstrate exceptional levels of quality, comfort, cleanliness, hospitality and attentive service.
Visit Britain Rose Award: Caravan holiday homes for hire on parks which achieve a 'four-star' or 'five-star' rating may be eligible for consideration for the Rose Award.
AA Merit % Score: In addition to the star classification the AA give each hotel an AA Merit Score in the form of a percentage. This indicates the level of quality achieved with in each star rating and helps comparison of hotels with the same number of stars.

AA Rosette ratings for restaurants

Rosettes are awarded annually to AA inspected restaurants for the quality of their food. Most star-rated hotels have their own restaurants and we also inspect these. Not all restaurants receive an AA award, but will generally serve enjoyable food of a reasonable standard.

One Rosette: Chefs should display a mastery of basic techniques and be able to produce dishes of sound quality and clarity of flavours, using good fresh ingredients.
Two Rosettes: Innovation, greater technical skill and more consistency and judgement in combining and balancing ingredients are all needed at this level.
Three Rosettes: This award takes a restaurant into the big league. Expectations of the kitchen are high: exact technique, flair and imagination must come through in every dish, and balance and depth of flavour are all-important.
Four Rosettes: At this level, not only should all technical skills be exemplary, but there should also be daring ideas, and they must work. There is no room for disappointment.
Five Rosettes: The supreme accolade awarded only when the cooking is at the pinnacle of achievement.

National Accessible Scheme - Mobility

The National Accessible Scheme incorporates the following standards for self-catering, serviced accommodation and holiday parks.

Level 1: Typically suitable for a person with sufficient mobility to climb a flight of steps but would benefit from fixtures and fittings to aid balance.
Level 2: Typically suitable for a person with restricted walking ability and for those that may need to use a wheelchair some of the time and can negotiate a maximum of three steps
Level 3: Typically suitable for a person who depends on the use of a wheelchair and transfers unaided to and from the wheelchair in a seated position. This person may be an independent traveller.

For more information on national ratings visit the Visit Britain Quality in Tourism website or the AA website

Local Inspection

Properties featured on this website may also be inspected by recognised local inspectors, the Accommodation, Inspection and Advisory Service (AIAS) or the Northern Lakes Accommodation Providers. Properties have been assessed to at least national minimum requirements.

Fairtrade

In early 2005 the Keswick and District Fair Trade Campaign achieved Fairtrade town status. There are over 50 guest houses, hotels, B&Bs and self catering properties which provide Fairtrade products for their guests. On www.keswick.org all accommodation providers displaying the FT symbol offer Fairtrade tea and coffee to their guests in bedrooms and dining rooms. Some offer more, such as drinking chocolate and fruit juices.