What Are The World’s Tallest & Highest Hotels? It’s Tricky…

There’s something I really love about staying in a hotel room on a really high floor, where you’re so high up that you almost feel like you’re in an airplane. So, what are the tallest and highest hotels in the world? I want to talk about that in this post, and also discuss why the answer isn’t that straightforward.

Defining the tallest & highest hotels is tricky

The question of which hotel is the tallest and highest isn’t as straightforward as you might assume. And even once we do define it, there’s the question of the extent to which the answer is actually useful. First let’s cover the distinction between the tallest hotel and the highest hotel.

Generally speaking, the tallest hotel would be defined as the tallest building where a large percent of the building is made up of the hotel. Most commonly, I see people suggest that this would include buildings where at least 80% of the building is the hotel.

This is different than the highest hotel, which would be the hotel that is highest above the ground, even if it only takes up a small percentage of a mixed-use building, where there might be apartments, residences, etc.

In other words, a 50-story building that consists exclusively of a hotel would fall into the former category, while a 110-story building where the top 10 floors are a hotel would fall into the latter category. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the properties that are remarkable in these categories…

The world’s top five tallest hotels

First, let’s cover some of the world’s tallest hotels. We’ll define this as hotels where at least 80% of the building consists of the hotel facility.

Let me of course mention one downside of very tall standalone hotels — you could end up being on a very low floor. After all, if a high-rise consists exclusively (or almost exclusively) of hotel facilities, some people will end up on very low floors. The other downside, of course, is that these hotels are necessarily huge. If you prefer boutique hotels, you won’t find any on this list.

Currently, the tallest hotel in the world is Ciel Tower Dubai. The 1,042-room hotel opened in 2024, rises to a height of 1,227 feet (374 meters), and has 82 floors.

To go over the list of the top five tallest hotels in the world:

1. Ciel Tower Dubai, IHG Vignette Collection, is a 1,042-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,227 feet (374 meters), and has 82 floors
2. Gevora Hotel Dubai is a 528-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,169 feet (356 meters), and has 75 floors
3. JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is a 1,608-room hotel, and it rises to a hight of 1,165 feet (355 meters), and has 82 floors
4. Rose Rayhaan by Rotana Dubai is a 462-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,098 feet (333 meters), and has 72 floors
5. Conrad Shanghai is a 728-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,098 feet (333 meters), and has 60 floors

As you can see, it’s interesting (but perhaps not surprising) that all four of the world’s tallest hotels are in Dubai.

The Conrad Shanghai, meanwhile, is located in the Shimao International Plaza, and this is the perfect example of how it’s tough to define what is technically the tallest. While the building it’s in rises to such a high height, roughly 25% of that height is the spire. So technically it’s a very tall building, but the usable space isn’t as high as you’d assume.

The world’s top five highest hotels

If you ask me, the world’s highest hotels are much more interesting than the world’s tallest hotels. That’s because the world’s highest hotels typically take up the top floors of some gravity-defying skyscrapers, and therefore, they can also be boutique properties.

When defining the world’s tallest hotels, there are some general challenges:

• Some people will decide which hotel is highest based on the floor number it’s on; however, not all floors are the same height, and many buildings skip lots of floors (due to superstition, or whatever)
• Some people will decide which hotel is highest based on the top floor occupied by the hotel, but some hotels game this; for example, one hotel on the list takes up floors 84-105, and floor 120
• Some people will decide which hotel is highest based on the total height of the building, and that poses the challenge of often including a spire or some other architectural “crown” on top of the building, which can inflate the height

Because of the above, there are some minor disagreements as to which hotel wins the title, but I’ll share my take (while acknowledging that I don’t have the ability to scale buildings with a measuring tape).

Currently, the highest hotel is the Rosewood Guangzhou. The 251-room hotel opened in 2019, and it’s located at the top of the CTF Finance Centre Guangzhou, which reaches a height of 1,739 feet (530 meters).

To go over the list of the top five highest hotels in the world:

1. Rosewood Guangzhou is a 251-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,739 feet (530 meters), taking up the top floors of the 108-story CTF Finance Centre
2. Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur is a 252-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,650 feet (503 meters), taking up the top floors of the 118-story Merdeka 118; the building actually rises to a height of 2,227 feet (679 meters), but that’s only due to a spire
3. Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong is a 312-room hotel, and it rises to a height of 1,588 feet (484 meters), taking up the top floors of the 118-story International Commerce Centre
4. J Hotel Shanghai is a 165-room hotel, and the Shanghai Tower building that houses it rises to a height of 2,074 feet (632 meters), taking up floors 84-105 and floor 120
5. Signiel Seoul is a 235-room hotel, and the Lotte World Tower building that houses it rises to a height of 1,821 feet (555 meters), though the hotel only takes up floors 87-101 of the total of 123 floors

As you can see, those last two properties are kind of hard to judge, and particularly J Hotel Shanghai is tricky, given that the property is split between different parts of teh building.

Lastly, as the inverse of the above, I should mention that the Armani Hotel Dubai is located within the Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s tallest building. However, it’s located at the very bottom of the building, so that’s hardly that useful, for these purposes.

Bottom line

If you ask me, it’s always fun to stay in a hotel room that’s really high up. There’s an important distinction between the tallest hotels and the highest hotels, though sometimes, the exact rankings are a bit blurred.

While I’ve long been interested in this, I enjoyed researching this a bit more closely, and actually having a (sort of) definitive list. Ciel Tower Dubai is the world’s tallest hotel, while the Rosewood Guangzhou is the world’s highest hotel (unless you want to consider the 120th floor of the J Hotel Shanghai separately from the rest of the property).

Have you stayed at any of the world’s tallest or highest hotels? Does it even hold any appeal to you?