While we may wonder what happened to 6-star hotels, how about 5-star hotels? There are many of these all over the world and of course a five star hotel is supposed to be of the highest quality in every area. There are many hotels in the world these days that are five star but in the last ten years or so the concept of 6-star hotels has emerged to show superior service, opulence, and attitude.

Some hotels have such absolutely exemplary service that they claim to be 6-star hotels as opposed to 5-star hotels. I heard a story of one traveler at a 5-star hotel in Indonesia who could not plug in their cell phone to the electrical outlet of their room. She went to the desk to ask if they could help them find a charger with the proper plug and was told yes, she could find one at a store right outside the hotel complex. This was not sufficient help for the traveler and she complained to her friends about supposed “5-star service.” Had she been at a 6-star hotel like the Crown Macau in Macau or the Oriental Bangkok in Thailand, if the claims of superior service by these hotels are to be believed, then she should have been told to wait and the staff would have delivered a new charger to her room for no cost.

This brings us to the only 7-star hotel in the world, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. It is the tallest operating hotel in the world, although an empty hotel in North Korea and the Rose Tower in Dubai (yet to open) are taller. It’s renown has prompted other 7-star projects still under development in places like India, China and Pakistan. It’s architecture renders it to look like a sail and was designed the best engineers in the world. If you walk in at three in the morning, you will be greeted personally, by name, and you can tell them you want a full meal of lobster in your room immediately and they will most certainly oblige you, for no extra cost. At the Burj, you get what you pay for and what you pay for is a seven star hotel. It may be marketing, but the opulence, grandness and humble, outstanding service at this palace of a hotel probably do deserve the moniker of 7-star hotel. Some call it a 6-star hotel but it is one step above even six stars. Add the location, beauty, features and stellar courtesy of this hotel and it should equal the best hotel in the world. At $1000 and up per night, it definitely should be.