In Reply to: Different star ratings for hotels. posted by Bintang Barbie on Wednesday, 9. June 2010 at 19:41 Bali Time:
Australia is one of the few countries in the world that has a "unified" star rating system by the travel industry body "AAA" & even then this is questionable.
Just look on sites like Wotif & you will see that some providers are ***(star) rated & others are ... self rated. In Australia it is illegal to use the star rating system, if not rated by "AAA", hence the self rated symbol.
I believe that in many countries, travel companies use their own system to rate properties whilst the accommodation provider can self rate.
Hope this has helped a little.
So to answer you question, Jayakarta, will probably fall into a category in between.
Your best bet is to use forums like this, or sites like "Tripadvisor". BUT even sites like "Tripadviser" can be manipulated by properties or their competitors, as it is virtually unregulated. Properties that have glowing reviews by guests that have only ever posted 1 review are sometimes a good tell tale sign of manipulation.