Four luxury Dublin hotels have been given 30 days to appeal a decision to downgrade them from five-star to four-star status under Fáilte Ireland's Internet booking service.
The Shelbourne, St Stephen's Green; the Radisson, Stillorgan; the Conrad, Earlsfort Terrace; and Jurys, Ballsbridge, have each requested a review of the decision by Excellence in Tourism Ltd, the company which rates hotels on behalf of Fáilte Ireland. A spokeswoman for Fáilte Ireland said, as far as it was concerned, the gradings for the four hotels had never changed despite the fact that Excellence in Tourism announced the docking of a point for each establishment last Monday.
A spokeswoman for the ratings company said it had no one available for comment yesterday.
All four hotels could be found on Fáilte Ireland's website yesterday listed as five-star hotels. All but the Shelbourne could be found similarly listed on the www.goireland.com, the major tourism information website run by Gulliver, a service originally developed by Bord Fáilte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. A Gulliver spokesman said the Shelbourne was not listed on the site because it had not subscribed to be a member of the service.
Meanwhile, Dublin's Stillorgan Park Hotel announced yesterday that it had received RAC four-star classification to match the AA four-star grading it already held.