Visit Scotland Garden Awards

VisitScotland under the Scottish Tourist Board brand, administers the 5-star grading schemes which assess the quality standards of all types of tourist accommodation and visitor attractions from castles to gardens. Schemes are monitored all year round – each establishment is reviewed once a year.

How does the system work?

Advisors visit and assess establishments on up to 50 areas from quality, comfort and cleanliness to welcome, ambience and service. If an establishment scores less than 60% it will not be graded.

Graded visitor attractions

Visitor attractions from castles and museums to gardens are graded with 1 to 5 stars depending on their level of customers care. The focus is on the standard of hospitality and service as well as presentation, quality of shop or café (if there is one) and toilet facilities.

The promise of the stars:

it is clean, tidy and an acceptable if basic , standard.
it is a good, all-round standard.
it is a very good standard, with attention to detail in every area
it is excellent – using high quality materials, good food (except self catering) and friendly, professional service.
an exceptional standard where presentation, ambience, food (except self catering) and service is hard to fault.

www.visitscotland.com