Singapore’s historic Raffles Hotel has moved up 11 spots to sixth place in 2024’s The World’s 50 Best Hotels list. Sentosa luxury resort hotel Capella ranked 33rd in the list this year, moving behind five places. Thailand’s Capella Bangkok topped the list, followed by Italy’s Lake Como hotel Passalacqua and Rosewood Hong Kong taking the second and third spots respectively.
The list is produced by British media company William Reed – which is also behind food and beverage-centric lists, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and The World’s 50 Best Bars. The title of World’s Best, however is a subjective one, rather than a scientific determination. To arrive at its results, the World’s 50 Best team asks its 600 anonymous jurors to rank the seven best hotels they’ve stayed in over the last 18 months.
It’s a system that necessarily favors easy-to-reach destinations, big cities and new hotels with marketing muscle: There are no rules against jurors taking free stays, so those with big promotional budgets can draw dozens of influencers and media on familiarisation trips to help get the word out, creating a slew of eligible voters along the way. (Bloomberg accepts no such invitations.) By contrast, even the best-traveled voters are unlikely to have gone on safari or explored the wilds of Patagonia in that recent period, leaving only a small minority of voters with the ability to cast votes for properties in off-the-beaten track destinations.
In theory, a global pan.