Accommodation New Zealand

... selection criteria

Rating Accommodation New Zealand is not as straightforward as we'd like.

Different rating organisations have different criteria for awarding star ratings. And we certainly didn't want to become another one...

So we set our luxury accommodation selection criteria as follows:

We used the New Zealand Tourism Quality standard, Qualmark, as a base. They've awarded their five-star rating to over 180 properties offering luxury accommodation in New Zealand.

Are they even-handed and consistent? There's some debate about that but they're a good place to start, given the importance tourism has for the New Zealand economy...

All properties with a Qualmark rating of 5 stars are included in our listings.

Exclusive

Qualmark's 5-star, Exclusive rating has been awarded to just six luxury properties offering accommodation New Zealand. You'll find them on the Exclusive page. In many ways Qualmark had to create this extra category because without it, there was nothing to distinguish the super-lodges within the national accreditation scheme, while they were recognised internationally...

And they certainly have international recognition

... Andrew Harper, among others, has seen fit to count New Zealand lodges among the best the world has to offer.

Other Sources

Book Your Luxury New Zealand Accommodation Online with...

... and earn Rewards Points with your first booking!

Then we looked at Agoda, our online booking service and added in their 5-star properties.

You'll see that some Qualmark 5-star properties have only 3 stars on Agoda and some 5-star Agoda properties are worth 4 stars in Qualmark's criteria. So rather than trying to create a new rating system, we included both.

There is also the New Zealand Lodge Association, which has some 20 member properties. Some "Qualmarked", others not.

Yes, we could have been overly selective and selected only those properties that had 5 stars in both but you would have missed out on many excellent opportunities...

just because different rating systems use different criteria. And that makes no sense.

Luxury Marketing Companies

Next, we looked at the international luxury marketing organisations such as

Small Luxury Hotels
Leading Hotels of the World
Select Hotels
and others...

Any properties that have been accepted into these programs are listed as well.

A significant vote of confidence in the standard of luxury accommodation New Zealand has been given by six specialist international luxury marketing groups.

Membership of a marketing group is not as prestigious as a third-party award, of course, but it works both ways and is a fair measure of quality. The lodges pay to be represented but the marketing group assesses their standards...

The six international groups that represent properties here are:

Boutique Hotels and Resorts International - 6 properties
Relais and Chateaux - 3 properties
Select Hotels and Resorts - 16 properties
Small Luxury Hotels - 11 properties
The Charming Hotels of the World - 9 properties
The Leading Hotels of the World - 2 properties

Fiercely Independent Lodgings

And finally we have a process of self-selection. These are the independent lodges that are so sure of their facilities and service that they see no need to seek third-party accreditation. They have asked to be included here and are well aware of the company they keep...

Yet other operators of luxury accommodation New Zealand have no need to seek accreditation. But it's still possible to "triangulate", it's just that sometimes third-party recommendations don't come from the usual places...

Ahipara Luxury Travel, the organisers of such exquisite ventures as an eleven-day luxury helicopter tour of New Zealand use a Wellington-region lodge that has no affiliation with any of the groups mentioned above. There are others in the Coromandel and Otago.

On a per-capita basis, you'd be hard pressed to find a higher concentration of exclusive, luxury accommodation anywhere else on the planet...

Write your own Review

The most rigorous of any luxury accommodation New Zealand selection criteria, though, is yours.

As customers and visitors to these properties, it is you who acts as the final arbiter in these matters.

So you're invited to provide feedback and testimonials to have published on this site. Just write your review and let your fellow luxury travellers know what you found.

Return to Home Page from Accommodation New Zealand Selection Criteria

Luxury New Zealand: Robust Sophistication