“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, it’s still always interesting to take a look, and the latest list has just been published.
“The World’s 50 Best Hotels” list for 2025
“The World’s 50 Best Hotels” list has just been released for 2025, so here’s the full list:
- Rosewood Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Thailand
- Capella Bangkok, Thailand
- Passalacqua Lake Como, Italy
- Raffles Singapore, Singapore
- Atlantis The Royal Dubai, UAE
- Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Thailand
- Chablé Yucatán Chocholá, Mexico
- Four Seasons Florence, Italy
- Upper House Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Copacabana Palace Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Capella Sydney, Australia
- Royal Mansour Marrakech, Morocco
- Mandarin Oriental Qianmen Beijing, China
- Bulgari Tokyo, Japan
- Claridge’s London, United Kingdom
- Four Seasons Astir Palace Athens, Greece
- Desa Potato Head Bali, Indonesia
- Le Bristol Paris, France
- Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab Dubai, UAE
- Cheval Blanc Paris, France
- Bulgari Rome, Italy
- Hôtel de Crillon Paris, France
- Rosewood São Paulo, Brazil
- Aman Tokyo, Japan
- Hotel Il Pellicano Porto Ercole, Italy
- Hôtel du Couvent Nice, France
- Soneva Fushi, Maldives
- The Connaught London, United Kingdom
- La Mamounia Marrakech, Morocco
- Raffles London at The OWO, United Kingdom
- The Emory London, United Kingdom
- Maroma Riviera Maya, Mexico
- The Calile Brisbane, Australia
- The Lana Dubai, UAE
- Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Monaco
- Janu Tokyo, Japan
- The Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai, India
- One&Only Mandarina Riviera Nayarit, Mexico
- Singita Kruger National Park, South Africa
- Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Hotel Bel-Air Los Angeles, United States
- The Mark New York, United States
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso Los Cabos, Mexico
- The Tokyo EDITION Toranomon, Japan
- Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto, Japan
- Estelle Manor Witney, United Kingdom
- Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, Croatia
- Hotel Sacher Vienna, Austria
- Mandapa Bali, Indonesia
It’s interesting to note the top ranked hotel in each continent:
- In Asia it’s Rosewood Hong Kong (#1)
- In Europe it’s Passalacqua (#4)
- In North America it’s Chablé Yucatan Chocholá (#8)
- In South America it’s Copacabana Palace Rio de Janeiro (#11)
- In Oceania it’s Capella Sydney (#12)
- In Africa it’s Royal Mansour Marrakech (#13)
It really shows you how Asia and Europe are spoiled with amazing hotels, as the regions have a vast majority of the top properties.
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, and being transparent.
Long story short, this list is created by The World’s 50 Best Hotels Academy, which “comprises more than 800 members, each selected for their expert opinion of the international hotel scene, with a 50/50 gender balance.” The panel consists 40% of travel journalists, 30% of hoteliers, and 30% of seasoned luxury travelers. A minimum of 25% of the panel is renewed every year.
The globe is divided into 13 geographical regions, and each region has a chairperson appointed for their knowledge of their section of the hotel world. These chairs select a voting panel, consisting of hoteliers, journalists, and experienced luxury travelers.
Each member has seven votes, and needs to list the top seven hotels they have stayed at in the past two years, 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 the world’s top hotel rankings
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. To state the obvious, comparing Passalacqua to Atlantis The Royal to Singita is just something that can’t reasonably be done, because they’re such different experiences.
I do find it strange that the top three hotels are all city properties, since at least personally, I enjoy an amazing resort a lot more than an incredible city hotel.
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 two years, 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
- As you’d expect, a lot more people will be invited to stay at a luxury hotel with hundreds of rooms, vs. a small safari lodge with half a dozen rooms
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. At the same time, you can’t help but laugh a little about the results. Like, we’re going to claim at that the Tokyo EDITION Toranomon is a better property than Les Airelles Courchevel?
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 2025. 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, Rosewood Hong Kong is now the world’s top hotel, followed by Four Seasons Bangkok, followed by Capella Bangkok.
What do you make of this new list of the best hotels in the world?
