Set against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the Broadmoor is a resort almost as majestic as its setting, as iconic as nearby Pikes Peak. It is a property that defies trends, where the doormen still wear formal attire and hats, a place where tasteful modern upgrades coexist comfortably with traditional luxury decor and impeccable service.
And while the Broadmoor is one of a handful of so-called grande dames of luxury resorts in North America, it is the only property to have held both the coveted AAA Five Diamond and Forbes Five Star ratings every year since those groups began ranking hotels.
On TripAdvisor, however, the property gets just four-and-a-half stars, the same as the nearby budget and midscale properties Staybridge Suites, Radisson and Hampton Inn & Suites.
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Up the road in Denver, the Ritz-Carlton was the city's first and only property to receive AAA's Five Diamond ranking until this year, when the Four Seasons joined the list. On TripAdvisor, those hotels also get four-and-a-half stars, the same as a number of properties in and around downtown. And neither has ever achieved Forbes' highest ranking.
Indeed, rankings can vary widely, raising questions about what they really mean and whether they remain relevant in the age of TripAdvisor, social media overload and the popularity of the fast-growing number of independent properties that defy traditional luxury brand standards.
Only two of the 10 hotels on TripAdvisor's Top 10, the Langham Chicago and the Grand del Mar in San Diego, have a Five Diamond ranking. None has earned Forbes' five stars.
"Personally, I think those star ratings have diminished in value," said Perry Lungmus, vice president of luxury travel at the Travel Leaders Group. "In my view, it is far more relevant to go to TripAdvisor and find someone you can relate to and understand their first-hand experience. My feeling is that many of those star ratings are embellishments on the wall that these hotels want to put up. I think they are more meaningful to hotels and hoteliers."
But hoteliers and the ranking services themselves say TripAdvisor and scores of other third-party and traveler review sites only make the ratings more relevant, offering travelers a professional Good Housekeeping-type seal of approval against which they can compare other reviews.
Calvin Banks
"Anybody can go into any social media [service], website or blog," said Calvin Banks, director of training at the Broadmoor. "Smart consumers look at a number of different factors."
Forbes CEO Jerry Inzerillo said that with the Internet, anyone can put up a website declaring their hotel to be five, seven, even nine stars.
"It has led to global confusion in the buying decision," he said.
The Langham Chicago.
While Forbes and AAA were traditionally the go-to sources for hotel ratings, TripAdvisor over the past decade has grown from an early scourge to hoteliers who were worried about false postings by competitors to a global leader in traveler reviews.
And there are a variety of other respected rating services, including Michelin and, for travel agents, Northstar Travel Media's Crown rankings and Star reviews. (Northstar is the parent company of Travel Weekly.)
Still, most hoteliers continue to consider Forbes and AAA the gold standard because of their strict, professional ranking criteria and opaque reviews for upscale and luxury properties.
"TripAdvisor is the equivalent of the People's Choice Awards," Inzerillo said. "The Forbes Five Star ... is the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal. The difference is you can't bias a Forbes Award. You cannot buy a Forbes Award. You cannot influence a Forbes Award. The only way to get it is on merit."
Indeed, many hoteliers encourage their guests to write TripAdvisor reviews, and the annual Top 10 list is chosen based on the quality and quantity of reviews.
In contrast, the Forbes and AAA rankings are done by inspectors who follow set criteria in grading the properties. For upscale and luxury hotels and resorts, they determine grades after making anonymous visits.
Achieving and retaining coveted top rankings does not come easily.
The outdoor fireplace at the Broadmoor Cottages. Forbes CEO John Inzerillo said the resort’s Five Star rating is a result of the management team’s and owners’ commitment to high-quality service.
"The Broadmoor is a great example," said Inzerillo. "There is nothing accidental about them having the five stars. That management team, the ownership, is extremely committed to that level of service."
On a recent visit, as occupancy neared 100%, a visitor might have thought she was the only guest, based solely on service levels. Multiple doormen were always at the ready. No less than three valets were always on hand to take or retrieve a car, and there was never a line or wait for anything.
Banks said the resort has a rigorous and ongoing training program that instructs staff how to perform to the AAA and Forbes standards. It's a huge undertaking for a resort that in peak season employs about 2,000 staff.
The minimum amount of training, depending on the position, is a day and a half. And all employees have to pass written and oral tests to be certified to take care of the Broadmoor's guests, Banks said.
About 60 to 90 days later, they are called back to a special class, titled "Keeping the Star." In addition, Banks said, teams have ongoing pre-shift meetings that focus on the standard of the day, for example, and the resort distributes a monthly newsletter focused on service and training.
"At the end of the day," Banks said, "it begins with the culture of the organization. The people who lead the organization believe in taking care of the people who take care of the guests. That's where it starts with us."
The Langham New York. High rankings are an important validation, especially for smaller brands.
At the Langham Hotel Group, which has about two dozen hotels around the world, Bob van den Oord, general manager of the Hong Kong property and brand manager for the group, said the rankings are an important validation, especially for smaller brands like his. The company's Chicago hotel has five diamonds, and Forbes ranks its hotels in China and the U.K. with five stars.
"What it does is give us credibility," van den Oord said.
The Broadmoor was the first property to earn a five-star rating from Forbes when it began its Mobil Travel Guide in 1960. It added the Five Diamond Award when that program was launched in 1976. The property is also among a very select few that have achieved the double distinction of also earning five stars for its fine-dining restaurant, the Penrose Room. The Broadmoor also earned five stars for its spa, the Spa at the Broadmoor.
Fewer than half of the 93 U.S. properties in the AAA Five Diamond Award this year also got five stars from Forbes.
Forbes' list is smaller, at 69 U.S. properties, and is seen as less exacting but more discerning than AAA, as the ranking operation has expanded globally over the past several years into destinations where luxury standards can be higher than they are in North America.
"We have great respect for our colleagues at AAA," said Inzerillo. "We think that going forward, we have a different view on international lodging."
He said the differentiators among the ranking systems will only grow as time passes.
"What our charter is for the next 57 years is to raise global standards as tourism really grows," Inzerillo said. "What does that do? It raises all boats. It allows for a remedy, because a guest can now go to our travel site and know they can bet on a property because they know it can only be awarded on merit."
An infinity edge pool cabana at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo.
As Forbes has begun expanding its rankings beyond North America into Asia and Europe, Inzerillo said it has made its standards more transparent and has established a global standards advisory committee that includes industry representatives to evaluate the relevance of the criteria.
AAA is also evolving, but it still operates only in North America and has stricter physical criteria.
Forbes, for example, has a checklist of more than 500 criteria a five-star hotel must pass, 30% of which involve the physical facilities and 70% of which apply to service. Inzerillo said the organization is about to increase its weighting for service to 75%.
The reason for the change, he said, is that "We have very substantial global data, and evidence from guests is that they are less drawn to facilities. ... They want to feel welcome, nurtured."
In contrast, at AAA, the weighting is reversed. Michael Petrone, director of the hotel inspection and Diamond program, said that the Five Diamond criteria are 70% facility-based and 30% service-based. But he said when giving the final grade, generally AAA looks at facilities and service equally, "because if they are physically Five Diamond and they don't meet the service score, they don't get the rating."
AAA's ranking, he said, is "a totally different approach. We have professional inspectors and published criteria."
AAA inspectors, he said, are all highly trained professionals with experience in the hospitality industry.
"They are not just stringers," he said. "They are employees. They go through about six to eight weeks of training."
"It begins with the culture of the organization. The people who lead the organization believe in taking care of the people who take care of the guests." -- Calvin Banks
Changes in criteria derive from member preferences.
For example, "We know from our members that they were expecting Internet to be free, so we include a way to measure that during the inspection," he said. "So if we go into a property and there is a charge for the Internet, they will receive a reduction [in grading for that criterion]. Members want that free. ... Members want free parking."
Every five years, he said, AAA surveys members and updates the checklist.
The evolution of both entities is key, as the definition of luxury is changing, becoming less stuffy and more experiential. Gone are the days when every Ritz-Carlton looked the same. Today, the emphasis is on uniqueness.
What's more, luxury properties increasingly are eschewing hotel brands that mandate conformity to things like thread counts and bathroom amenities -- standards that often match the criteria that AAA and Forbes have used to grade properties -- and instead are defining luxury on their own terms.
The spa at the Langham Chicago. The property is one of only two hotels on TripAdvisor’s Top 10 to also have a AAA Five Diamond ranking. “What it does is give us credibility,” said Bob van den Oord, brand manager for the Langham Hotel Group.
Dan Flannery, executive director for North America of the Langham Group, said, "It's not the end-all to say, 'I have five diamonds.' But it helps."
Flannery added: "The value in this is more than the rating itself. It is the intensity with which it is drilled into the staff that every guest is a potential [AAA or Forbes] rater. What you are getting is a much higher level of service for, hopefully, every guest who comes through the door."
Corrections: Forbes' Five Star hotel ratings list for 2015 comprises 69 properties. An incorrect number of hotels was reported in a previous version of this story. Also, the name of Forbes' Mobil Travel Guide was spelled incorrectly. In addition, Colorado's Broadmoor was referred to as one of a select few to achieve the double distinction of earning five stars from Forbes for hotel and fine-dining restaurant. The Broadmoor also earned five stars for its spa, the Spa at the Broadmoor.