The top fifty was read out in Paris on Tuesday night, the first time the ceremony has left London. Rosewood Hong Kong kept first place. Below it the list rearranged itself around Bangkok, Paris and Tokyo.
Rosewood Hong Kong is the world’s best hotel for a second year. It was third in 2024, first in 2025 and first again on 15 September, which also gives it the title for Asia. Tony Chi designed the interiors, 413 rooms in a tower of 65 storeys above Victoria Harbour; the Asaya spa takes several of those floors, with nine treatment rooms and an infinity pool facing the water. Rosewood, the group, took the Most Admired Hotel Group award on the same night.
Bangkok holds two of the top three. Capella Bangkok, first in 2024 and third last year, climbs to second. Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River is third, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok tenth, and Aman Nai Lert enters at 48. Four hotels from one city inside the fifty, and Asia holds eighteen places in all.
Paris
France and Italy each put six hotels on the list. Paris takes four of France’s. Hôtel de Crillon climbs nine places to 14. Le Bristol is 19, Cheval Blanc Paris 20, and Plaza Athénée enters at 41. Hôtel du Couvent in Nice sits at 38 and wins the Art of Design award; Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes returns at 44.
The organisers now call themselves The 50, and the hotel ranking has dropped the word World’s from its name. Les Salles du Carrousel, beneath the Louvre, hosted this fourth edition, with Cheval Blanc Paris and Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme as venue hosts. Paris Fashion Week opens in under a fortnight. The city’s four winners will be full when it does.
A suite at Aman Tokyo, the Imperial Palace gardens below; the hotel is No. 11 · Courtesy of Aman
London and Milan
London keeps three. Claridge’s at 13, Raffles London at The OWO at 28 and The Connaught at 49, one place above San Domenico Palace in Taormina, which closes the list at 50. Estelle Manor in Oxfordshire rises four to 43. Milan has one entry, and it is new: Portrait Milano at 39, the Lungarno Collection’s hotel in the old seminary on Corso Venezia. The rest of Italy runs through Passalacqua at 5, best in Europe and best boutique hotel for a third year, Four Seasons Firenze at 12, Casa Maria Luigia in Modena new at 18 and the year’s highest new entry, and Bulgari Roma at 32.
New York has nothing in the fifty. The Fifth Avenue Hotel stays at 78 on the extended list, with the One to Watch award handed over before the night. Shanghai’s only name is The Peninsula at 99. Seoul and Copenhagen do not appear. Sydney does: Capella Sydney is 16 and the best hotel in Oceania. Monaco’s Hôtel de Paris is 40.
A ranking is a map of where the voters slept for three years. This one says Bangkok first, then Paris.
The Splendid EditTokyo
Aman Tokyo at 11 is the highest-placed hotel in any fashion-week city, one place outside the top ten. Bulgari Tokyo is 24. Patina Osaka enters at 33 and takes Best New Hotel; Park Hyatt Kyoto returns at 37. Four Japanese hotels sit in the fifty, and Janu Tokyo, Park Hyatt Tokyo, The Okura, Palace Hotel Tokyo and Hoshinoya Tokyo all wait between 51 and 100.
Aman Tokyo takes the top six floors of the Otemachi Tower. Kerry Hill’s stone arrival hall is lit through a ceiling of washi paper, close to thirty metres from floor to lantern. Deluxe rooms start at 71 square metres with a furo tub by the glass. The pool on the spa floors runs thirty metres toward a window, and on a clear evening Mount Fuji sits at the end of it. The hotel’s photograph above was taken at dusk from a suite, Tokyo Tower lit orange at the left of the frame.
Aman places three hotels this year: Tokyo at 11, Amangiri new at 45 and Aman Nai Lert new at 48. Belmond has three as well. Copacabana Palace at 29, Mount Nelson in Cape Town back on the list at 34, and Maroma on the Riviera Maya at 47. Mexico has four winners, led by Chablé Yucatán at 9, best in North America and holder of the Eco Hotel award; Las Ventanas al Paraíso at 25 is the year’s highest climber.
Twenty-two territories, ten new entries, twenty-one European hotels against eighteen in Asia, and the top three all in the east. Read the list with a fashion calendar beside it and Milan looks thin, New York looks absent, and Paris looks ready for the fortnight ahead.
Rankings from The 50 Best Hotels 2026, announced 15 September 2026 at Les Salles du Carrousel, Paris. Hotel details as published by the properties and remain subject to change.
Photography courtesy of Aman — © Aman, Aman Tokyo