World's 50 Best Hotels 2025: The Best in the Art of Stay

LuxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary lingers in the scent of white tea on marble floors, the hush of linen against an ocean breeze, and especially in the intimacy of a service that feels almost telepathic. Every year, The World’s 50 Best Hotels celebrates the delicate mastery of places that transcend hospitality, becoming prime destinations of memory, architecture, and art among its most discerning guests.

At the top of this year’s list sits Rosewood Hong Kong. Crowned The World’s Best Hotel 2025, it’s a deserving return to the summit for Asia, and certainly a triumph of design as diplomacy. Towering over Victoria Harbour, the Rosewood distills the city’s contradictions into a hotel experience that feels as contemporary as it is timeless.

Rosewood Hong Kong was designed by the world-renowned architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF). *Photo: KPF*

A New Lexicon of Luxury

Spanning 22 countries and 32 cities, the 2025 list reads like a cartography of modern indulgence. The perennial European heavyweights—Passalacqua on Lake Como, Le Bristol and Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, Claridge’s and The Connaught in London—still exude the kind of grandeur that has long defined the old-world lexicon of luxury. But what’s most fascinating this year is the continued rise of Asia and the Middle East, now fully cemented as the vanguard of contemporary hospitality.

The Mandarin Hotel Bangkok was the first hotel (then known as The Oriental) built in Thailand in 1876. *Photo: Wikimedia Commons*

The Philippines’ next-door neighbor, Bangkok, in particular, continues its remarkable streak, with Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River and Capella Bangkok taking the second and third spots, respectively, joined by the ever-iconic Mandarin Oriental Bangkok at seventh. These properties have come to redefine the city’s relationship with its natural environment, transforming the Chao Phraya into a corridor of serenity and design innovation. It’s the kind of elegant arms race that benefits travelers most.

Atlantis The Royal in the evening. *Photo: Pexels*

Then there’s Dubai with the shimmering Atlantis The Royal at sixth place, making its dazzling debut. When we think of the hotel, we see an ode to spectacle and scale where architectural bravado meets meticulous detailing. Fellow Dubai newcomer The Lana, on the other hand, proves that subtlety can coexist with excess, embracing warm minimalism in contrast to its more flamboyant peers.

Elsewhere in the Middle East we get Royal Mansour in Marrakech at 13th, which remains the embodiment of hand-crafted Moroccan luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary, punctuated by its medina-inspired courtyards echoing the very soul of the city.

More than design or cuisine, we’ve seen, too, that the world’s best hotels today emphasize consciousness. Singita – Kruger National Park (No. 40) continues to be a benchmark for ecological immersion, while Soneva Fushi (No. 28) in the Maldives proves yet again that sustainability and sophistication can share the same space.

Even the grande dames of luxury are evolving. Raffles Singapore (No. 5) feels freshly reborn after its meticulous restoration while The Upper House in Hong Kong (No. 10) has become the pinnacle of urban serenity.

Overwater villas at Soneva Fushi are among the most sought-after stays in the world. *Photo: Soneva*

New Entrants and the Evolution of Taste

Among the many surprises for this year are the strong performances of relative newcomers like Desa Potato Head in Bali at the 18th spot, The Emory in London at 32, and Bulgari Roma at 22. Their success hints at a broader narrative, where the future of luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary creatively marries heritage and reinvention.

In Desa Potato Head’s case, sustainability becomes not just a virtue but a visual language. Its architecture, which is actually crafted from reclaimed brick and concrete, frames Bali’s sunsets like living art, while its zero-waste philosophy challenges traditional definitions of indulgence. The Calile in Brisbane at number 34 continues this shift toward “urban resort” living, blurring the line between leisure and locality with terracotta-toned serenity.

Japan, likewise, cements its dominance in design-driven hospitality. Bulgari Tokyo, Aman Tokyo, Janu Tokyo, and The Tokyo Edition Toranomon all made it to the top 50. Each hotel beautifully showcases a different facet of Japanese precision, one that marries modernity with meditative restraint. Together, they form a constellation of calm in the world’s busiest metropolis.

Europe, for its part, surprises with its quiet introspection. The Hôtel du Couvent in Nice (No. 27), a converted 17th-century convent, exudes the kind of spiritual minimalism that contrasts sharply with the grandeur of Parisian landmarks. In Italy, Hotel Il Pellicano (No. 26) and Bulgari Roma trade marble for mood, offering a subtler, more cinematic form of coastal glamour.

Here is the full list: