Science Determines the World’s 12 Best Luxury Hotels

You might have a preferred concierge service, morning view or bedding setup when it comes to hotel chains, but can you honestly say your stays are consistently impeccable?

There is no such thing as an easy high-end experience: meticulous planning goes into every step of the stay, it just needs to be invisible to the consumer. You’re looking for zero snags, issues or holdups, and of course, the best of everything.

Attempting to measure just what that means in an objective manner: Luxury Travel Intelligence (LTI), an independent, members-only group for “affluent” travelers that recently applied science to the question of the best luxury hotels on the planet. Using an algorithm that takes account of 118 distinct points on interest (they did not publish what, exactly, those 118 criteria were), the survey aims to cover overall execution as well as “the [hotel] brand’s ability to deliver: its passion, commitment, ethos and values, as well as the quality of its management and staff.”

The maximum score is 4,320, and no one hotel reached it. Still, the top 12 aren’t shockers by any means, a who’s who of hospitality titans who put their (and your) money where their mouth is to ensure your stay is gloriously blissful from checkin to checkout. You’ll pay a tidy sum, but in return you’ll get the highest quality experience possible.

LTI’s 2018 top 12 luxury hotel brands and their scores are as follows:

Aman (3,587)
Oetker Collection (3,494)
Six Senses (3,438)
Belmond (3,399)
Mandarin Oriental (3,378)
Auberge (3,312)
Four Seasons (3,264)
Soho House (3,180)
One & Only (3,152)
St. Regis (3,058)
Rosewood (2,981)
The Luxury Collection (2,897)

For the as-yet-uninitiated, the Oetker Collection is responsible for such gems as the European Odyssey, a 12-day private jet tour of the birthplace of Western civilization. Rosewood’s Little Dix Bay is among the Virgin Islands’ hotels that is closed for renovations due to Hurricane Irma. The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, meanwhile, recently added an eye-popping 68-foot yacht to its guests’ roster of amenities.

Before you head over to book, a little caveat emptor: “you get what you pay for” is an aphorism that applies to both ends of the spectrum.

_{Main image via Aman}