Long before there were websites, social networks and consumer reviews to help travelers find a clean hotel and a good meal, AAA inspectors were looking under beds and tasting the meatloaf all along North America’s roads. This summer, in fact, marks AAA’s 75th year of conducting on-site evaluations and publishing the results — in the good old printed TourBook® guides and, now, online at AAA.com and on the go through ebooks and apps.
“When I say what I do for a living,” said Inspector 80, “people ask, ‘How do I get your job?’ I tell them you have to love to travel, eat out in restaurants and see attractions … OK, maybe it does sound like fun. While being an inspector can be very demanding, I wake up every morning absolutely excited to be doing what I do. We personally evaluate all of the properties we list. We show up unannounced, we never make appointments and we allocate only a short amount of time from the point of introduction to the point we are in the first room conducting our inspection.”
Even in the wake of the recent technological information explosion, travelers still want and trust professional quality ratings — in addition to traveler generated satisfaction scores, according to industry research.
A History of Service
In 1937, AAA employed its first inspectors to evaluate and report on hotels and restaurants. Inspection information was offered to members in the three regional TourBook guides published at that time. In 1963, AAA adopted a formal rating system that categorized TourBook listed accommodations as Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding.
In 1976 AAA introduced its current Diamond Rating System for hotels (using a diamond in honor of the association’s 75th anniversary) and, from 1985 to 1990, rolled out the Diamond Ratings for restaurants. Today, AAA’s professionally trained inspectors inspect, approve and rate more than 59,000 hotels and restaurants to help ensure travelers have a positive experience.
AAA Ratings
AAA’s inspection process makes quality a given. “Properties must be clean and well maintained to be AAA Approved, and only then is the Diamond Rating calculated,” explains Inspector 80. “If AAA receives a member complaint about a property, the details are forwarded to the inspector assigned to that territory. If a property does not maintain our cleanliness and condition standards, the listing is disapproved regardless of the Diamond Rating. Also, AAA’s inspectors and sales representatives are two separate entities, allowing for completely unbiased inspections.”
AAA rates more properties than any other rating entity and is the only rating system that covers the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. It is one of only two that conduct physical, on-site evaluations.
Read inspectors' personal trip accounts under the Inspector Diaries topic tag located on the home page.
