“The World’s 50 Best” has historically published rankings of the world’s best restaurants and the world’s best bars, and the rankings have always been highly respected by people.
In 2023, the organization started publishing annual rankings of the world’s best hotels. While I don’t usually put too much weight into these kinds of rankings, several readers have asked for my take on this, so I figured it was worth covering.
In this post:
“The World’s 50 Best Hotels” list for 2024
“The World’s 50 Best Hotels” list has just been released for 2024, so here’s the full list:
- Capella Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
- Passalacqua, Lake Como, Italy
- Rosewood Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Cheval Blanc, Paris, France
- The Upper House, Hong Kong
- Raffles Singapore, Singapore
- Aman Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Soneva Fushi, Maldives
- Atlantis The Royal, Dubai, UAE
- Nihi Sumba, Sumba Island, Indonesia
- Claridge’s, London, UK
- Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
- Raffles London at The OWO, London, UK
- Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, Thailand
- Hôtel de Crillon, Paris, France
- Chablé Yucatán, Chocholá, Mexico
- Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, France
- Maroma, Riviera Maya, Mexico
- Four Seasons Firenze, Florence, Italy
- Borgo Santandrea, Amalfi, Italy
- Desa Potato Head, Bali, Indonesia
- Bulgari Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- The Lana, Dubai, UAE
- Rosewood São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- The Calile, Brisbane, Australia
- The Siam, Bangkok, Thailand
- Park Hyatt Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
- Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa
- One&Only Mandarina, Riviera Nayarit, Mexico
- The Carlyle, New York, U.S.
- La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocco
- Four Seasons Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Capella Singapore, Singapore
- Four Seasons at The Surf Club, Surfside, U.S.
- Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles, U.S.
- Eden Rock, St. Barths, Caribbean
- Aman New York, New York, U.S.
- Royal Mansour, Marrakech, Morocco
- Amangalla, Galle, Sri Lanka
- Le Bristol, Paris, France
- Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Scotland
- Castello di Reschio, Lisciano Niccone, Italy
- Suján Jawai, Rajasthan, India
- Singita – Kruger National Park, Kruger National Park, South Africa
- Six Senses Zighy Bay, Zighy, Oman
- The Connaught, London, UK
- The Brando, Tetiaroa, French Polynesia
- Hotel Esencia, Tulum, Mexico
- The Tasman, Hobart, Australia
- Kokomo Private Island, Yaukuve Levu Island, Fiji
It’s interesting to note the top ranked hotel in each continent:
- In Asia it’s Capella Bangkok (#1)
- In Europe it’s Passalacqua (#2)
- In North America it’s Chablé Yucatan (#16)
- In South America it’s Rosewood Sao Paulo (#24)
- In Oceania it’s The Calile (#24)
- In Africa it’s Mount Nelson (#28)
It really shows you how Asia and Europe are spoiled with amazing hotels, as the regions have 19 and 13 of the top 50 properties, respectively.
How the top hotel rankings are decided on
Whenever you see a list like this, one logical question is what methodology is used to award these rankings. There’s no perfect way to go about ranking things, but I have to give the organization credit for at least putting a lot of thought into how it goes about this.
Long story short, this list is created by The World’s 50 Best Hotels Academy, which “comprises 600 international well-travelled experts within the hotel and travel industry, with a 50/50 gender balance.” The panel consists 50% of travel journalists, 30% of hoteliers, and 20% of seasoned luxury travelers. A minimum of 25% of the panel is renewed every year.
Each member has seven votes, and needs to list the top seven hotels they have stayed at in the past 18 months, in order of preference. They must have spent at least one night at each property, and press trips, complimentary room nights, and those achieved through loyalty schemes, are valid for consideration. Each voter can only list up to three hotels within the same hotel group.
When it comes to choosing which properties they like most, this is super open-ended. There’s no criteria, so they can vote for whatever hotel they deem worthy.
My take on these rankings of hotels
I always enjoy these kinds of lists, though I don’t put too much weight on them. Personally I view this more as a list of 50 great hotels, rather than a ranked list of the world’s 50 best hotels.
There’s no denying that the people ranking these hotels have stayed at a lot of great properties over the years, though:
- They’re limited to ranking hotels they’ve stayed at within the past 18 months, and ultimately there are only so many properties you can stay at over that time
- I think some hotels make big pushes with inviting “travel journalists” partly to get onto lists like this, so you’ll find that hotels often put a lot of effort into media outreach when they hope to be ranked in this way
In many ways, I appreciate just how random this list is, and how so many of these hotels can’t be compared. You have everything from the 24-room Passalacqua, to the 795-room Atlantis The Royal.
I’ve gotta be honest, the thing I really don’t like about these lists is the extent to which they drive up rates at the top properties. People love to show off and feel like they’ve stayed at the “it” place, so of course everyone wants to visit “the best hotel in the world.” It almost has a White Lotus-esque impact.
There’s no denying that ranking on these kinds of lists is great for business, but it’s less good when it comes to affordable rates and availability at these hotels.
Bottom line
“The World’s 50 Best Hotels” list has been published for 2024. It’s always fun to look at to get a sense of what hotels are good, but I wouldn’t trust the relative rankings too much, given how the rankings are decided on. Anyway, Capella Bangkok is now the world’s top hotel, beating out Passalacqua, which has moved to second place.
What do you make of this new list of the best hotels in the world?
Always fun to see these self anointing "World's best" awards.
If Tim Dunn had money, he would have had funded the World's top 5 airline awards.
And the winner goes to.
#1 Delta
#2 Delta
#3 Delta
#4 Delta
#5 Delta
The World's 50 Best list is highly controversial, first of all the reviewers do not visit restaurants/bars/hotels anonymously so they get special treatment. This is in contrast to the Michelin guide where the reviewers actually visit anonymously and do NOT have things comp'd. You can read more about how the World's 50 Best organization is controversial, there are plenty of articles on it.
Really? No Taj, Oberoi or Leela on the list? I have stayed at the Sujan - it pales in comparison to the Rambagh Palace, the Taj Lake Palace or the Oberoi Udaivilas.
This list is just like any other - fun to read but useless in practice. We have stayed at a number of properties listed here and many not listed in the most recent ranking. There are some not listed here that would trump (at least for my wife and I) the ones we have stayed at from this list.
I am surprised that you have neither included The Peninsula or the Mandarin in Hong Kong. Both have been in this category for decades.
@Ben have you already posted about Michelin key ratings ?
Ben said it: It's fun to look at but don't put too much into the rankings. Given the "issue" with StarTrax airline rankings, it is fair to ask whether such a ranking involves pay-to-play.
I'm very pleased to see The Mark in NYC and The Berkeley in London are both missing from the list, as public rankings do nothing but attract the highly objectionable and disruptive influencer class.
In USA service doesn't exist. On top of that "tipping culture" for absolutely everything - from doorman to restaurant staff - is extremely annoying for all non-Americans. The list doesn't surprise me. I stayed in quite a few of listed hotels and all of them deserve to be in top 50. It is always difficult to say what hotel is "the best in the world" as everyone has different criteria.
Stayed at 4 of those hotels. Enjoyed them all a lot.
As usual, Cheval Blanc, Hôtel de Crillon and Le Bristol are the bright and flashy property stars of City of Light/City of Lovers.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
So PH Kyoto #1 points hotel in the world? Looks nice and all, and I'll be there in a few days.....
But aren't some of the Maldives points hotels wayyyyy nicer?
Ah shoot looks like the Super 8 by Wyndham Des Moines just missed the cut this year. There's always next year
I enjoyed my stay there so much that I'd call it a Super 9.5!
Any global ranking will always be challenging, regardless of category. While the World's 50 best Restaurants, and the best Bars lists have some highlights, of course I've had better meals and cocktails at places missing from the list. I find lists like this useful to find an intriguing place you want to try (be it restaurant, bar or hotel) that can drive a trip, or inversely one way to add options to an existing itinerary....
Any global ranking will always be challenging, regardless of category. While the World's 50 best Restaurants, and the best Bars lists have some highlights, of course I've had better meals and cocktails at places missing from the list. I find lists like this useful to find an intriguing place you want to try (be it restaurant, bar or hotel) that can drive a trip, or inversely one way to add options to an existing itinerary. But they're not worth using as an objective guide of the true top 50 in the world. City or region specific rankings tend to do a better job of covering many of the top places since they don't have the sheer volume of options to contend with.
The sheer volume of options is definitely the issue here. It would be impossible to create a true ranking of the top hotels worldwide because there are so many hotels
Incredible how lacking NYC is in the luxury hotel market. The Carlyle's rooms feel like they haven't changed from 25 years ago. Same goes for The Mark, just up the street.
The options in Asian major cities are light years ahead in terms of style and service.
Stayed at the Capella Bangkok a few times, as did a few other FTers. I don’t think any of us would describe as the world’s best hotel. A good hotel, sure, maybe even a great one, but far from the world’s best.
The methodology clearly favours hotels that are 1. Located in major cities where travellers are likely to pass through in the past 18 months and 2. part of hotel groups that can afford to give out lots of comp stays.
"The methodology clearly favours hotels that are 1. Located in major cities where travellers are likely to pass through in the past 18 months and 2. part of hotel groups that can afford to give out lots of comp stays."
Perfectly stated.
Hotel Olympic Committee?
I love The Mark. The decor is timeless and the rooms are very well maintained.
When you say "lightyears ahead in terms of... service", what exactly do you mean? I'm always mystified by comments like this. All I want is to be left alone unless I ask for something. I don't need to be fawned-over 24/7 by every staff member who makes eyes contact with me. My ego isn't that fragile.
@Pete I'm assuming this was meant for me.
The Mark is a decent hotel and the location is nice but the decor doesn't scream modern to me (even in a Madison Avenue old-school luxury sense) and, at least when I last stayed there in October of last year, the room was worn and faulty. Two lamps didn't even turn on. There were maybe three outlets in the whole room. I'm born and raised in...
@Pete I'm assuming this was meant for me.
The Mark is a decent hotel and the location is nice but the decor doesn't scream modern to me (even in a Madison Avenue old-school luxury sense) and, at least when I last stayed there in October of last year, the room was worn and faulty. Two lamps didn't even turn on. There were maybe three outlets in the whole room. I'm born and raised in NYC so I understand old buildings are a thing. I know for a fact it doesn't require a lot of effort to have outlets and USB ports in handy locations for modern travelers. If Hyatt House can do it, any place can.
My family and I don't need anything service-wise beyond the bare minimum. But when check-in is a semi-rude cluster, when the valets take 1 hour+ to retrieve the car and lie about you having requested retrieval, when staff make weird unsolicited comments about tips, when we ask for an amenity on offer (like a french press or toiletry items—again, the hotel offered, we didn't bring it up) and they can't fulfill that despite telling you it's on its way, you can't help but feel like things are more than a bit sloppy. At $1,000+ per night, that's a shame.
Never had a single issue like that at a luxury property in Asia in 25 years of personal and business travel there.
It's really interesting how basically there is no "loyalty programme" representation here. Really goes to show you how commercialized a lot of the chain and franchised properties are. True luxury properties lies beyond farming Marriott and Hilton points and are only booked with cold hard cash. No free elite upgrades, breakfast, or things like that.
Not true. In fact, the “best hotel in the world” is part of multiple loyalty programs.
@Super:
re "Upper House" in Hong-Kong.
It was even better when they had their "Café Gray" restaurant.
One of my all-time favorite restaurants.
I had my 40th birthday in one of the private dining rooms. Fantastic memories.
I'm surprised, The Upper House (#5 on the list) is still reasonably priced for how good it is, especially considering how rates have run away in recent years. Still ~$500-$750/night which is about the same as before the pandemic. Fantastic hotel and absolutely deserves it's placement.
Hong Kong's hotel market is struggling. I scored a stay at the Peninsula late Spring for $400 a night.
Ben, how about you make your own list of the best hotels you stayed?
I second this.
Four seasons Florence is overpriced. Had a not very smooth visit there.
And not a convenient location if you want to walk around the city. St Regis has a much better location in my opinion.
In a sea of useless travel lists, this one may be the most useless of all.
I second that!