No Hotel Had Ever Won This Twice Until Now

Rosewood Hong Kong was named the world’s best hotel for a second consecutive year at a ceremony on 15 September, making it the first property to hold the top spot twice in a row since the ranking began. The award carries with it the separate title of best hotel in Asia. The Victoria Harbour property, which opened in 2019 on the Kowloon waterfront, has spent the past several years accumulating the kind of critical consensus that is usually spread across several competitors, and the repeat win suggests the voting panel found no obvious reason to move on.

The ceremony itself was news. For the first time since the list was created, the awards were staged outside London, moving to Les Salles du Carrousel in Paris. The organisation also retired the longer name it had used for years, presenting the 2026 edition simply as The 50 Best Hotels under a new unified master brand. Neither change alters the voting mechanics, but together they read as an attempt to position the ranking as a European institution rather than a British one, at a point when hotel awards have proliferated and differentiation matters.

Behind Rosewood Hong Kong, the top five went to Capella Bangkok, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Atlantis The Royal in Dubai and Passalacqua on Lake Como. That is four Asian and Middle Eastern properties in the top four, and it reflects a decade in which the most ambitious new luxury hotels have largely been built east of Europe. Bangkok placing two hotels in the top three is the sharper data point: a city long associated with value is now hosting properties that outrank almost everything in Europe and North America.

For travellers using points, the list is less useful than it looks, because most of the highest-ranked properties sit outside the major loyalty programmes. The exceptions are worth noting. Park Hyatt Kyoto placed 37th and is bookable with World of Hyatt points, and Marriott’s Hotel du Couvent in Nice came in 38th. American entries were thin, with San Ysidro Ranch at 22nd and Amangiri at 45th. Rosewood as a group placed seven hotels on the list, including Rosewood Sao Paulo at sixth.

Sources: Time Out Hong Kong, Haute Living