The hotels selected by La Liste heavily skew luxury, with at least 80 properties under the Four Seasons brand showing up in the top 1,600. Most are in the US, followed by Italy, France and the UK.
The Peninsula Chicago was the top American hotel on the list, another example of city hotels edging out resorts that are destinations unto themselves.
AdvertisementThe list also includes more European grand dames and hotels in major cities, which get written about more frequently in global outlets and have more visitors than some in areas of South America or more remote towns. In the future, the company might add more affordable hotels or guest homes to an extended list, Pietrini said.
Alongside the list is a set of special honors decided upon by La Liste staff members, who aren't required to visit the properties but use their own judgment to spot trends, cross-reference sources and chat with their contacts in the industry. It gave four hotels awards for ethics and sustainability, including Bambu Indah in Bali and Six Senses Shaharut in Israel.
New arrivals awards for those opened in the past year went to Atlantis the Royal in Dubai, the Peninsula in Istanbul, Capella in Sydney and others.
Hotels that are new or have recently undergone major renovations can quickly show up in the list, Pietrini said. She cited the Cheval Blanc in Paris, which opened in 2021 and was among those with the top five score.
On the best hotels list, the scoring system resulted in many ties, with 20 hotels sharing the No. 5 spot. They include the Bulgari Hotel in Dubai, the Rosewood in London, the Baccarat Hotel in New York and the Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mexico-all with 98 out of 100 points. And there are nearly 200 hotels that received top 10 scores. (For example, 37 tied for the No. 10 spot with a score of 95.5.)
"It is quite true that hotels are less polarizing than restaurants," Pietrini said. "We had that comment internally that scores were very, very close to each other in the hotel database, a bit more than in the restaurants one."
But one hotel stood out as the sole No. 1, Pietrini said, repeatedly coming out on top as they were testing and tweaking the algorithm: Hotel Cipriani. It narrowly beat out the hotels tied for No. 2, with a score of 99.75 edging out the others at 99.5.
Pietrini visited the hotel to have a look for herself. "I totally understand why it is unanimously positively reviewed by all the sources," she said. "It's a legendary, iconic hotel. You can really feel the history in each detail of the property. It's a hotel with a story."
Here's a look at the top hotels, according to La Liste:
Belmond Hotel Cipriani
Location: Venice, Italy
Score: 99.75
Rank: 1
Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
Location: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Score: 99.5
Rank: 2 (tied)
The Peninsula Chicago
Location: Chicago, US
Score: 99.5
Rank: 2 (tied)
Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle De France
Location: Saint-Barthelemy, France
Score: 99.5
Rank: 2 (tied)
L'Ermitage Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, US
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
The Savoy
Location: London, UK
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
La Reserve Paris
Location: Paris, France
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
Le Meurice
Location: Paris, France
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
Il San Pietro di Positano
Location: Positano, Italy
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur
Location: Udaipur, India
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
Park Hotel Vitznau
Location: Vitznau, Switzerland
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
The Peninsula Shanghai
Location: Shanghai, China
Score: 99
Rank: 3 (tied)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
