The first edition of The World’s 50 Best Hotels will be unveiled on 19th September at London’s iconic Guildhall. Here’s everything you need to know about the three-day spectacle of events that will reveal the world’s most egalitarian hotel ranking
The stage is being set in London, where the first-ever list of The World’s 50 Best Hotels will be revealed at an awards ceremony starting at 20:30 on Tuesday, 19th September. The venue has just been announced as the City of London’s Guildhall, built in 1411 and one of the finest examples of original medieval architecture in the UK, although now locked and loaded with far more sophisticated audio-visual capabilities than befit Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the 15th century.
The ceremony will be screened live on The World’s 50 Best Hotels TV and will feature a countdown from No.50 to No.1, concluding with the announcement of the hotel named The World’s Best Hotel 2023. The ranking will be complemented by a host of special awards and will reflect the very best travel experiences around the globe, collated by 580 anonymous experts. This voting panel – the 50 Best Hotels Academy – comprises a balanced mix of hoteliers, travel journalists, educators and seasoned luxury travellers, led by a group of industry-leading Academy Chairs across nine regions globally.
The announcement will mark a seminal moment as the 50 Best Hotels list will be the first of its kind for the travel sector and, indeed, for people looking to use the ranking to book their next adventure. Consumers can be sure that it will be the most egalitarian and fair list of hotels ever created, with inspiration coming from listed venues on six continents.
The first-ever ranking of The World's 50 Best Hotels will be unveiled at a live awards ceremony at London's Guildhall (photo courtesy of Matt Chung Photography)
Any hotel worldwide is eligible for votes and it does not have to fit any criteria or tick any pre-ordained boxes to be considered – everything from small, remote boutique properties to sprawling luxury beach resorts can be considered by panellists. The awards will not be ‘pay to play’ – meaning the venues themselves do not have to pay to enter the awards, nor will they have to buy tickets to the events or invest any fiscal sum in the nomination process. The voters are simply asked to consider every element of their stay – from the first contact point at reception to the room and its amenities to the property’s restaurant and bar offering, until the point they check out.
The awards programme will kick off with a Welcome to London cocktail party on Sunday 17th September, followed by the first-ever Opening Banquet for the listed hoteliers on 18th September at one of London’s grand dame properties. This dinner will be an opportunity for the teams behind the hotels which will be named the 50 Best the following night to come together to share predictions for the list and unite over stories from their part of the travel world. Proceedings will conclude with the main event – the ceremony of The World’s 50 Best Hotels – at the Guildhall on 19th September.
Follow all the action unfold live on the 50 Best Hotels Instagram channel.
How the 50 Best voting works
Nine Academy Chairs – selected for their impartiality and connection with hotels and hotel journalists – each select a voting panel from their region, ensuring a balance of hoteliers, travel journalists, hotel educators and seasoned luxury travellers. Each Academy member then casts seven votes for hotels in order of preference based on stays experienced in the two-year voting period up to April 2023. For more information on the Academy Chairs, see the Voting webpage.
The World's 50 Best Hotels will provide an annual snapshot of the opinions from of a global panel of industry experts
The 580-voter strong Academy is the mechanism used to create The World’s 50 Best Hotels list. None of the employees of 50 Best nor any sponsors associated with the awards have any influence over the results and a minimum of 25% of the panel will be renewed each year. All voters, aside from the Academy Chairs, will remain anonymous to eliminate the possibility of lobbying. For full voting details and FAQs, see here.
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