The sole Australian representative, the 192-room Capella Sydney, is ranked 16th this year, sliding down from 12th in 2025 when it made its debut on the list.
The hotel opened a couple of blocks back from Sydney Harbour in 2023 and earlier this year launched several event spaces in a building across the road, known as The Lands by Capella.
Earlier this month the list of hotels ranked 51 to 100 was released by what was known as 50 Best and is simply The 50. The Calile in Brisbane came in at 83 while Huka Lodge in New Zealand was ranked 82. No New Zealand properties made the top 50.
The global list was once again topped by Rosewood Hong Kong and six of the top 10 hotels were in Asia, with spots two and three as well as 10th place going to hotels in Bangkok in Thailand – Capella Bangkok was second, the Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River was third and the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok was 10th. Thailand’s largest city had one more property in the top 50, with Aman Nai Lert coming in at 48.
Hong Kong had a second hotel in the top 10 – Upper House Hong Kong at number eight – and one more in the top 50 – The Peninsula Hong Kong, ranked 46th.
Aside from Bangkok, Paris was the only other city to have four hotels in the top 50: Hôtel de Crillon ranked 14th, Le Bristol at 19, Cheval Blanc Paris at 20 and Plaza Athénée at 41.
As a country, France had another two properties in the top 50, with Italy the only other country to also have six hotels listed, the highest ranked of these being Passalacqua in Lake Como, ranked fifth, which was also the highest ranked European hotel on the list.
The UK, Mexico and Japan each had four properties in the top 50. Mexico’s highest entry was Chablé Yucatán in Chocholá, ranked ninth, while Aman Tokyo just missed out on a top 10 spot, ranked 11th, and Claridge’s in London was the UK’s best placed property at 13.
The other hotels in the top 10 were Atlantis The Royal in Dubai ranked fourth, Rosewood São Paulo ranked sixth and Mandarin Oriental Qianmen in Beijing ranked seventh.
The USA had just two properties in the list, San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, ranked 22, and Amangiri in Canyon Point at 45.
On a continental level, Europe had the most hotels featured at 21, followed by Asia with 18.
“Rosewood Hong Kong retaining its No.1 position for a second consecutive year underlines Asia’s continued influence at the very highest level, while Europe’s strong representation and this year’s ten new entries point to a dynamic, diverse and competitive global hotel landscape,” said The 50 Best Hotels’ director of community, Faye Huggett.
See the full list here.
