Next year sees the 100th anniversary of the AA’s guide to hotels in Britain.
While the AA has been recommending hotels since 1905, it was 1912 when a more critical approach that saw hotels given star ratings was adopted.
The then AA Secretary, Stenson Cooke, had once been a wine and spirit salesman and felt that the star rating of brandy would be a familiar yardstick to apply to hotels. He said: “a really decent, average, middle-class hotel” would merit the standard three stars. The 1912 AA Handbook carried details of the new ratings and by the 1913 AA Handbook the hotels listed carried the star ratings.
The latest version of the AA Hotel Guide has details of more than 3,500 establishments ranging from elegant country houses, fashionable boutique hotels and more than 500 budget hotels.
Of the hotels in the 1913 guide book, 20 were rated as five star, five of which still appear in the current AA Hotel Guide – The Grand Hotel, Brighton, The Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, The Spa Hotel, Tunbridge Wells and The Royal, York.
The AA Hotel Guide 2013 is available from all good bookstores as well as The AA Shop priced £14.99 as well as an app from the iTunes and Android Stores.
