The Four Seasons Toronto has been given top ratings by Forbes Travel Guide and the AAA for its attentive service, first-class amenities, superior comfort and outstanding quality
What started as a modest motor hotel in downtown Toronto in 1961 has grown into one of the world's most recognizable luxury hotel brands.
When Isadore Sharp opened the three-storey Four Seasons Motor Hotel, he searched for ways to make it stand out and excellent service became one of its hallmarks. More than 50 years later, the current Toronto incarnation of Mr. Sharp's vision, the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville, has been honoured with two of the most prestigious honours bestowed on hotels: a Five Star rating in the 2014 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards and a Five Diamond rating by the AAA. The Four Seasons is the only Toronto hotel to have both honours.
Owners of the Four Seasons Private Residences, the condominiums adjoining the hotel, enjoy only access to the stellar services and amenities provided at the Four Seasons, but now have globally recognized bragging rights.
To determine its ratings, Forbes Travel Guide (formerly Mobil Travel Guide) sends teams of professional incognito inspectors and editors around the world to seek out the best hotels, restaurants and spas. They have visited each hotel, restaurant and spa they rate and recommend and have anonymously tested every aspect of a property's experience.
Only two Canadian properties – the flagship Four Seasons in Toronto and the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver – were added to the coveted elite Five Star list this year. In the U.S., Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills also earned the top rating, as well as did two Four Seasons hotels in China (the new Four Seasons Hotel Pudong, Shanghai and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip).
Four Seasons Hotels and Resort is the group with the most Five-Star hotels in the world, with 18 in all.
THE RATING SYSTEMS |
FORBES RATINGS
Five star: Virtually flawless services, the finest of amenities and staff that is intuitive, passionate and goes beyond expectations. Superb comfort, craftsmanship and quality. A destination unto itself.
Four star: A distinctive setting, with many interesting and inviting elements. Attention to detail is evident, from design concept to quality of products provided. Staff is accommodating and takes pride in catering to your specific needs.
Recommended: Well-appointed hotels have enhanced amenities and design that provide a strong sense of location, whether through style or function. May have a distinguishing design and ambience, or may be more focused on functionality, providing easy access to local hot spots.
AAA RATINGS Five Diamond: The ultimate in luxury and sophistication. Extraordinary physical attributes, meticulous personalized service, extensive amenities and impeccable standards of excellence.
Four Diamond: Refined, stylish and with upscale physical attributes that reflect enhanced quality throughout. Extensive amenities, high degree of hospitality, service and attention to detail.
Three Diamond: Multifaceted accommodations with distinguished style, physical attributes, amenities and guest comforts.
Two Diamond: Affordable with modestly enhanced physical attributes, design elements and amenities.
One Diamond: Budget, no-frills accommodations with basic comforts and hospitality. |
Hotels that earned the Five Star rating provided a memorable experience through virtually flawless service and the finest of amenities. Staff was intuitive, engaging and passionate, and went beyond expectations. The hotels were designed with comfort in mind, with particular attention paid to craftsmanship and quality of product.
The AAA has been evaluating hotels for 78 years and rates more properties than any other rating entity. It sent professionally trained inspectors, using published guidelines, to review 29,000 resorts, inns, hotels and bed and breakfasts across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. Just 0.4 per cent of them, including the Toronto Four Seasons, made the Five Diamond list.
There are five Five Diamond hotels in Canada, including the Four Seasons in Toronto, the Four Seasons in Whistler, B.C. as well as Ritz-Carltons in Toronto and Vancouver and the Shangri-La in Vancouver.
The AAA inspectors give an in-depth inspection, checking on everything from how beds are made, how fastidious the cleaning staff is, to counting the number of coat hangers provided (no wire hangers allowed). The quality of furnishings and finishes is also scrutinized.
Chris Hunsberger, the executive vice president of product and innovation at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, told the Forbes Travel Guide team that his group's hotels are "imaginariums" where employees are encouraged to create new ideas and services that will enhance the guest experience, and put them into place, as some of our best ideas come from people working in the properties who witness the needs of our guests firsthand.
Employees are empowered to think creatively to elevate the experience for all guests. They are encouraged to develop a new service, more efficient system or original amenity tailored to guests' unique interest. Some examples include 15-minute room service that started in Boston and has been extended to Four Seasons around the world, according to Mr. Hunsberger.
Isadore Sharp's savvy strategy to make service the differentiator for the first Four Seasons hotel is still at the heart of the hotel franchise today. Mr. Hunsberger said that the only sustainable differentiator between luxury brands is the ability to customize the guest experience, truly understand their needs and to deliver a memorable experience at all levels.
For that reason, Four Seasons invests significantly in employee recruitment to ensure it hires the right staff and treats them like members of an elite team.
Mr. Hunsberger told Forbes that Four Seasons services continually pushes the bar for services and one example is the new customizable bed program that offers guests the choice of firm, classic or plush mattress, through use of interchangeable bed toppers. It also has several new apps for guests' mobile devices.
The hotel chain does not take a cookie cutter approach and develops its hotels that fit within their markets in terms of culture, style and design. Local culture is incorporated throughout the design process, such as at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, which has been curated to showcase artisans and craftsmen from around Canada, including Attila Richard Lukacs and Sondra Meszaros.