Here’s a fun topic that I’ll share my thoughts on, and then I’m curious to hear how OMAAT readers feel — what are the best luxury hotel brands in the world? It goes without saying that there’s no right answer as to what the best hotel groups are, given that it really is dependent on…
Continue reading: What Are The World’s Best Luxury Hotel Brands? My Favorites…
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Appreciate you listing the difficulties with creating these lists (which ultimately shows how pointless they are). Totally agree - how do you compare a Singita to an Oetker (and why would you anyway). This is a good summary though, especially how you break them out. Still, so many terrific ones not listed that easily could be.
Looking at your second two lists, which "should" top the points list - I've had terrific through down right bad stays very recently at several for them. Even the "boutiques" have consistency issues.
You should check the Fasano brand from Brazil. They are rapidly expanding internationally and they are extremely upscale. https://fasano.com.br/en/
Fantastic brand, but hard to put them on a list like this since they are so specific to Brazil (similar thoughts with Oberoi, for example). Yes, they are expanding internationally (some amazing properties in the pipeline), but given that bookings for NY are only open to members or approved/partner agencies, I agree with leaving them off.
Accor ALL?
Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, Sofitel legend, Orient Express, Banyan tree & some very very good M gallery properties
Not a comment on it's value for money but Shangri-La shouldn't be on this list. It competes more with Grand Hyatt or Hilton than it does with Park Hyatt or Waldorf Astoria.
Should check out Rocco Forte Hotels. They have some great properties in Rome (Hotel de la Ville and de Russie, for starters).
Not saying it should be on the list but a brand for Ben to keep in mind. They will soon open properties in Miami, Sardegna, Portugal, London and they just bought an amazing palace in Milan that will become a hotel. BTW, way before Fasano was known for hotels, they were known for superb gastronomy so it is well known that their properties will have amazing restaurants. Highly recommend.
Also surprised that Auberge Group and Dorchester Collection arent on this list. These are groups with amazing properties.
100% agree. Adding to Italian fantastic boutique hotel brands, Baglioni, Lugarno and Egnazia.
A few thoughts from your list:
I would not consider Shangri-La or Marriott Luxury Collection as true luxury brands. They might have some properties that are true 5-star properties, but they average toward more 4.5-star premium then full luxury from my experience.
I think Raffles deserves a place in the best luxury hotels bookable with points category, certainly above St Regis or WA.
I was surprised to read your negative thoughts on Alila Jabal Akhdar's service. I stayed there last year, my first and only Alila, and thought that the service was excellent. I felt that this was a 4.5-star hotel in terms of hard product, but operating with 5-star standard service (and of course an absolutely stunning location as you stated).
Would be great to hear your thoughts on the independent hotel marketing brands like LHW, Preferred LEGEND, SLH, Relais et Chateaux... I have found Preferred LEGEND's to be more consistently high-standard luxury than the others.
Agree. I think some Shangri-La's might make 5-star, but plenty more are in line with Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, JW Marriott level.
Putting Park Hyatt at the top is a bit surprising to me, maybe I haven't stayed at enough PHs. I always thought the WA, St Regis, Ritz had better services over Park Hyatts. Is it just me...?
Ben if you haven’t read the Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy book, you must! I’m reading it right now and it explains so much about why the brand is the way they are.
It is all in the eye of the beholder, as they say. I think you will find more consistency in PHs than the other brands, which tend to have more variation amongst properties. Also coloring Ben’s ranking is Hyatt’s superior status recognition, especially for top tier Globalists, which, as a Globalist myself, I can say makes a big difference in your perception of the brand.
Park Hyatt is wildly overrated and very inconsistent. Service is generally below the level one would expect at a five-star hotel. Many hotels are point farms.
I thought Issy Sharp's book was a terrible disappointment -- boring and reflecting Sharp's complete lack of self-awareness. The only interesting bit was his bitchy comments about Aman. Jimmy Sherwood's book about the founding Orient Express is a much better read.
My list would be: Aman, &Beyond, Tswalu, Singita, Wilderness, Cheval Blanc, Four Seasons, Waldorf-Astoria, One&Only, Six Senses, Raffles, Rosewood, St. Regis, Park Hyatt, Baillie Lodges, Belmond, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La, Pendry, Barrière. Yes, somewhat location dependent; most good, newer better, some timeless, half-cash/half-points. Hope to try more and more. Keep traveling!
He had Singita at #1 on the third section... lots of 'glamping' with them. Try Sabora Tented Camp.
Hey Ben, you use the word “luxury” quite often, but this word means many different things to many different people. How about a post in which you outline your definition?
I'm skeptical that there really could be a best luxury "brand"? The things I care about seem so much more related to the age and condition of the specific hotel. I'd like to think the luxury brands pay attention more, but I'm doubtful. Convince me I'm wrong! Because I'd love to know that if I were willing to pay more I could guarantee a room that isn't worn out, where you can't hear people walking down the hall and slamming doors, that doesn't have mold, that doesn't spill water everywhere when you take a shower, etc.
How can you forget Little Saint James?
Many elite, powerful and wealthy enjoyed this resort southeast of St. Thomas.
Many more wanted to go but couldn't.
You always forget that Belmond has properties in South America too, like the iconic Belmond Copacabana Palace in Rio, and Belmond Catarata do Iguacu in Iguacu Falls.
Looks amazing like Simon Wilson and Kara & Nate showed on Youtube, but seems like service needs to be more polished.
wow...You are obsessed with so many things...
4Seasons definitely the way to go. I have never had a bad stay for over 15 years staying with the brand. They better not nickel and dime. Not at the prices they charge. Plus they are not Marriott anyhow, so...
I agree with a number of your points. I completely agree that I seek out St Regis over Ritz Carlton because of the benefits for members that are included there. I also agree regarding your comments that it depends proeprty by property and about the difference between the US or Asia and if it is a converted property or not.
However, I don't think you could compare the Marriott Luxury Collection which is really a upper-middle brand similar to a JW Marriott to the St Regis or Ritz Carlton or Waldorf, etc. Further, the only big benefit of booking through the Stars or similar program for those that the breakfast is included for premium members is the $100 credit and often times the member rate is a lot cheaper.
I think your other lists of non-points and boutique luxury hotels are messy. Some are of the tier above big brand luxury such as Rosewood and Peninsula. Some are full brands of themselves that have lower and higher end hotels (e.g. Shangri-la). Some are niche brands within the big brands, etc. There are also other brands such as Raffles which surprisingly you did not mention.
As the used condom collector EskimoBot, you must have been in your element surrounded by so many pedophiles on Epstein Island …. yes?
Agree on removing Shangri-La, but either Marriott Luxury Collection is included or both that and RC are removed - there is no difference in quality between them in practice (both are highly variable). I can name many places in Europe and Asia where I’d rather stay at the local Luxury Collection property than the RC.
Only because it was called out in the article, is RC Tokyo that nice? I went up to the bar and while the views were okay and the food/service was good, the hard product looked like a Y2K construction styling that felt anything but contemporary.
This place was charging $1k / night before it was commonplace in Tokyo, so curious if it's really that premium.
In most places in the world you could be taken to the cleaners with a libel suite for posting a comment that imputed that someone is a kiddy-fiddler. Grow up, mate.
Great Eagle Holdings, are worth a punt if you need to expand your portfolio.
Some of their hotels are most acceptable too …. however, be aware of those which are only franchised properties.
Read my post again Pete, you might infer that which is not actually posted or implied.
Peninsula's complementary Pens and newspapers are top drawer . Yet they don't make up for the constant raising of prices , like elevators which only go up .
Surprised to not see Auberge on here. Their property in Costa Rica and the two in Cabo are arguably the best in those regions. Then you have Etereo which is bar none the best in Riviera Maya. I could go on and on. Wildflower in upstate NY, perfection. Guess it’s personal preference.
Surprised to not see Auberge on here. Their property in Costa Rica and the two in Cabo are arguably the best in those regions. Then you have Etereo which is bar none the best in Riviera Maya. I could go on and on. Wildflower in upstate NY, perfection. Guess it’s personal preference.
Terribly out of date photo for the Four Seasons Miami Brickell. New rooms are much better, much more competitive than before vs. Surfside.
LOL. Libel? For posting on a website? What is this... the United Kingdom?? This's 'merica!
They got lucky on timing. Shebara does look pretty cool. Reminds me a little of what Ritz-Carlton Fari Islands was going for in Maldives (except, more like a UFO, shiny and chrome).
Langham is decent; I liked the one in Chicago. I just remember... lots of pink in the design theme.
Yep! Perhaps Great Eagle Holdings are appealing to the feminine side of your personality 1990Bot …. 🙂
Of all of these brands, Luxury Collection is my favorite. I don’t really understand paying luxury prices for a hotel that is just high-end bland like a lot of these brands. Give me something with character, or I’ll just spend half the price for a slightly less generic hotel experience.
Every few weeks, the inimitable Ben gifts us yet anoher ranking of his “favourite luxury hotel brands.” And, like clockwork, it manages to be both highly confident and oddly detached from the realities of… actually staying in hotels.
For those unfamiliar with the his methodology, it’s quite straightforward. Step one: stay roughly 24 hours in a property (just enough time for a few carefully framed photos). Step two: ideally don’t pay for the room — points from a rotating carousel of credit cards will do nicely. Step three: if points aren’t available, there’s always the helpful option of being invited. The result, naturally, is a body of expertise of remarkable… brevity.
This does create a slight methodological limitation. When you spend very little time in a hotel, and very rarely pay for it, your ability to assess service, consistency, operations or long-term guest experience becomes somewhat theoretical. But let’s not allow such details to get in the way of a ranking.
Predictably, Park Hyatt appears high on the list — historically one of the few “luxury” brands that remained conveniently accessible with fixed award pricing. Anyone who actually travels extensively will know that Park Hyatt properties vary wildly in quality, but that nuance rarely survives the points-optimisation lens.
Likewise, the usual suspects proclaim Ritz-Carlton as some sort of untouchable benchmark. Which is amusing if you’ve spent enough time in the brand to know how uneven it can be depending on ownership and geography. But again, nuance is inconvenient when you’re mostly reviewing redemption opportunities.
What makes the exercise even more entertaining is a quick glance at the actual number of properties Ben has stayed at within each brand. The sample sizes are often… modest. One could call this bold statistical confidence.
Then there is the conspicuous absence of Relais & Châteaux, one of the most emblematic networks of independent luxury hotels in the world. But of course, that would require two problematic things:
actually paying for the room, and
the inability to redeem points.
In other words, a tragedy.
On the bright side, this also means Relais & Châteaux guests are unlikely to be disturbed by the presence of bloggers optimising credit-card welcome bonuses. A reassuring thought.
Where things become genuinely funny, however, is OMAAT’s treatment of IHG luxury brands.
Because IHG luxury hotels are, inconveniently, expensive. And OMAAT’s status — typically Platinum via credit cards — does not deliver the sort of perks that make frequent paid stays attractive. Combine that with dynamic award pricing and suddenly the points wallet starts to look rather thin.
The predictable outcome? Entire brands quietly disappear from the “favourite luxury brands” discussion.
For instance, Regent — unsurprisingly absent.
And Six Senses, dismissed with the claim that the brand is “largely not bookable with points.”
Except that it is.
In reality, most Six Senses properties are currently integrated into IHG One Rewards and can be booked with points, including:
Six Senses Bhutan (Bhutan)
Six Senses Con Dao (Vietnam)
Six Senses Crans-Montana (Switzerland)
Six Senses Fiji (Fiji)
Six Senses Fort Barwara (India)
Six Senses Ibiza (Spain)
Six Senses Kanuhura (Maldives)
Six Senses Kaplankaya (Turkey)
Six Senses Kyoto (Japan)
Six Senses La Sagesse (Grenada)
Six Senses Laamu (Maldives)
Six Senses Ninh Van Bay (Vietnam)
Six Senses Residences Courchevel (France)
Six Senses Rome (Italy)
Six Senses Shaharut (Israel)
Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea (Saudi Arabia)
Six Senses Uluwatu, Bali (Indonesia)
Six Senses Vana (India)
Six Senses Yao Noi (Thailand)
Six Senses Zil Pasyon (Seychelles)
The number of non-participating properties is actually very small, mostly due to historical integration issues:
• Six Senses Douro Valley
• Six Senses Krabey Island
• Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain
• Six Senses Samui
• Six Senses Zighy Bay
In other words, the problem isn’t that Six Senses can’t be booked with points.
The problem is simply that they require quite a lot of them.
Which brings us back to the core analytical framework of Ben’s luxury rankings:
If I can redeem a credit-card bonus for it, it’s an outstanding luxury brand.
If I can’t… it probably isn’t worth mentioning.
A refreshingly efficient methodology.
One almost admires the consistency.