World's Best

Travel + Leisure Readers' 25 Favorite Hotel Brands of 2023

Readers showed their love for these welcoming hotel brands in our annual "World’s Best Awards" survey for 2023.

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Published on July 11, 2023

The post-pandemic hotel boom continued at a rapid pace this year, with several new openings around the world — all the better to give readers a chance to experience the latest from their favorite hospitality groups.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 165,000 T+L readers completed the 2023 survey, an increase of nearly 25 percent over pre-pandemic voting levels. A total of more than 685,000 votes were cast across over 8,500 unique properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotel brands were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Locations
Rooms/facilities
Food
Service
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

Exterior view of pool and living room in suite at Capella Bangkok — Courtesy of Capella Bangkok

What Readers Loved

Readers were excited that Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, which were voted into spot No. 7 this year, expanded its collection recently with new properties in Rome, Crans-Montana in Switzerland, and Dehradun, India (which lies about 154 miles north of New Delhi). The brand, known for its wellness-focused programming and waste-reduction initiatives — like eliminating single-use plastic — continues to grow: expect new hotels later this year in London, the Maldives, and Saudi Arabia.

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts (voted No. 10) also had a big year: the debut of the Rosewood Vienna in August was a major milestone in the city’s hotel landscape. Located on Petersplatz, one of the city’s main squares, it’s housed in a renovated 19th-century building a few steps from the famed St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Smaller hotel brands had a presence on the list, too. Take the Bunkhouse Group (No. 4), based in Austin. The company’s 11 properties — spread across states such as Texas, California, and Kentucky (including this chic summer opening in Louisville), and Mexico — are intimate in scale and often occupy reimagined motels that offer an independent, slightly quirky atmosphere that draws in free-spirited travelers. Similarly, Standard Hotels (No. 6) is known for creating bars and restaurants with a youthful spirit, where locals are just a part of the scene as hotel guests.

But it was the Singapore–based Capella Hotels & Resorts, which recently opened its first outpost outside of Asia, that was voted into the No. 1 spot by our readers. Keep reading for details on what makes it so special to T+L readers — and which other players made this year's list of best hotel brands.

The Winner

Capella Hotels & Resorts

Guestroom bathtub at Capella Sydney — Courtesy of Capella Hotels & Resorts

Our reader's favorite this year has a strong presence in Asia, with properties in places like Bali, Bangkok, Hanoi, and Singapore. But the company is also expanding to other continents: the new Capella Sydney occupies an entire block of the city’s Central Business District. The renovated historic building (built in the early 1900s) was originally used by the Department of Education and features 192 guest rooms and suites, as well as three restaurants, a natural light-filled indoor swimming pool, and a spa. It was one of Australia’s biggest openings in recent memory. What’s next for Capella? New hotels in Riyadh, the Maldives, Taipei, and Kyoto.