It feels like only yesterday we were waiting with bated breath to hear the results of last year’s 50 Best Hotels list, which saw the luxury Hong Kong hotel Rosewood Hong Kong claim its inaugural top spot, having spent a couple of years floating around the podium.
Now in its fourth year, the list is starting to carry serious weight among both travellers and hotel groups, particularly as an already fiercely competitive industry becomes increasingly crowded with new luxury stays with each travel season. And with more five-star properties vying for the increasingly valuable attention of well-travelled guests, the competition has never seemed tougher.
So, for Rosewood Hong Kong to take the World's Best Hotel for the second consecutive year, they clearly must be doing something right.
RELATED: Rosewood Hong Kong Review: Bigger, Badder, And Bougier On The Kowloon Waterfront
Rising 65 storeys above Victoria Harbour into the Hong Kong sky, the Rosewood Hong Kong, a 264-metre luxury skyscraper with a reported $2.6 billion invested, has become one of the city's defining luxury addresses since opening in 2019. Having stayed there only recently, it still remains an epic and staggeringly layered odyssey of a hotel, where every visit is accompanied by a renewed sense of wonderment.
At 16th overall, Capella Sydney sits as Australia's lone representative on the list, taking out The Best Hotel in Oceania for another year running (albeit slightly lower down the list), making it the only Australian property to crack the Top 50.
Housed within the heritage-listed building that once served as the NSW Department of Education's headquarters on Bridge Street, it’s since become one of the more eye-catching buildings in Sydney’s CBD: colonial-era architecture wrapped around a thoroughly modern luxury hotel. It’s even welcomed Richard Mille’s first Australian boutique within its sandstone walls.
Elsewhere, Bangkok cemented its status as one of the world's great hospitality capitals, with three hotels in the Top 10 alone, with Capella Bangkok missing out on the top spot in second, Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River at No. 3, and Mandarin Oriental Bangkok rounding out the Top 10.
Mexico also placed four properties across the list, with local favourite Chablé Yucatán taking No. 9 alongside the Bombay Sapphire Eco Hotel Award. Unsurprisingly, Passalacqua on Lake Como took out The Best Hotel in Europe and, for the third consecutive year, the Best Boutique Hotel Award.
The list is compiled by an Academy of more than 800 independent voters, spanning hoteliers, travel journalists, hotel educators, and well-travelled business types across 22 territories and six continents. Each voter casts seven ranked votes based on hotel stays within a three-year window, with the process independently adjudicated by Deloitte.
The World's 50 Best Hotels 2026, in full:
- Rosewood Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Capella Bangkok, Bangkok
- Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Bangkok
- Atlantis The Royal, Dubai
- Passalacqua, Lake Como
- Rosewood São Paulo, São Paulo
- Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, Beijing
- Upper House Hong Kong, Hong Kong - (Read our in depth review here)
- Chablé Yucatán, Chocholá
- Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Bangkok
- Aman Tokyo, Tokyo
- Four Seasons Firenze, Florence
- Claridge's, London
- Hôtel de Crillon, Paris
- Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab, Dubai
- Capella Sydney, Sydney
- Raffles Singapore, Singapore
- Casa Maria Luigia, Modena
- Le Bristol Paris, Paris
- Cheval Blanc Paris, Paris
- Desa Potato Head, Bali
- San Ysidro Ranch, Santa Barbara
- One&Only Mandarina, Riviera Nayarit
- Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, Tokyo
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso, Los Cabos
- Royal Mansour Marrakech, Marrakech
- Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens, Athens
- Raffles London at The OWO, London
- Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro
- The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
- The Peninsula Istanbul, Istanbul
- Bulgari Hotel Roma, Rome
- Patina Osaka, Osaka
- Mount Nelson, Cape Town
- NIHI Sumba, Sumba Island (Read our in depth review here)
- Badrutt's Palace, St. Moritz
- Park Hyatt Kyoto, Kyoto
- Hôtel du Couvent, Nice
- Portrait Milano, Milan
- Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Monaco
- Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris
- Hotel Sacher Vienna, Vienna
- Estelle Manor, Witney
- Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes
- Amangiri, Canyon Point
- The Peninsula Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Maroma, A Belmond Hotel, Riviera Maya
- Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, Bangkok
- The Connaught, London
- San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel, Taormina