Edition: U.S. / Global  Sorting Out Star Systems  Published:
November 23, 2003  IF you pick up a copy of Mobil's 2004 guide
to the best hotels and restaurants in America, you'll find just
three five-star hotels listed in New York City.  Mobil's main
competitor in the expanding world of hospitality ratings, the
Automobile Association of America, is almost as discriminating:
AAA gave its highest award - five diamonds - to just five New
York City hotels when the company announced its 2004 winners
last week.  Tough critics, those old-timers, who have been
rating American hotels for decades (Mobil since 1958, AAA since
1977). Because as more and more companies get into the business
of rating room service, bath towels and bed linens, the stars -
and diamonds and even smiley faces - have been proliferating
like crazy.  Most of the leading travel Web sites now offer
their own ratings for hotels, adding a whole new set of rankings
to the cacophony of opinions offered by guidebook publishers,
industry associations and