Study on the feasibility of possible initiatives at EU level and establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform on quality of tourism accommodation : executive summary

The objective of the study is to improve the understanding of existing public and private initiatives in the area of tourism accommodation classification that communicate to consumers the quality of various tourism accommodation services (including online consumer reviews and rating schemes). More specifically, the study (i) mapped existing public and private initiatives in the area of tourism accommodation classifications, (ii) assessed the impacts of the existing and public initiatives on the market and potential market failures, (iii) analysed the feasibility, added value and expected impacts of proposed policy solutions and (iv) integrated contributions from the multi-stakeholder platform. The aim of the multi-stakeholder platform was to facilitate and promote an open dialogue, the exchange of good practices and a closer cooperation between relevant stakeholders as well as deliver recommendations on furtherance of enhanced transparency, comparability and coherence between hotel stars systems, consumer reviews and rating schemes.