The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025 is hot off the press – and Australia has scored big, with two local stays making the cut.

The world doesn’t want for excellent hotels. Boundary-pushing design is rife, and impeccable service is now the benchmark, with new stays cropping up globally faster than we present our passports at check-in. Safe to say it makes earning a place on the annual World’s 50 Best Hotels list – the world’s foremost gauge for hotel excellence – all the more prestigious.  

The rankings for 2025 have just been announced at an awards ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London, where travel industry leaders and enthusiasts convened to celebrate groundbreaking hospitality feats. The list features 22 destinations across six continents, along with several special award categories. Here are the highlights.  

The results

Climbing two places from no.3 in 2024, Rosewood Hong Kong took home this year’s crowning title of the world’s best hotel. Rising 270 metres above Victoria Harbour, the coveted 413-key address is a shining beacon of art, design and swoon-worthy water views. It has attracted Hong Kong’s elite and a continuous stream of well-heeled travellers since its grand opening in 2019.  

Asia continued its winning streak with 19 other hotels noted on the list – the highest number of any continent. These included Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River and Capella Bangkok in second and third place respectively. Bali’s Desa Potato Head (no.18) was also presented the Eco Hotel Award after a rigorous audit by the Sustainable Restaurant Association. Close on Asia’s heels was Europe with 17 top 50 rankings and North America with six.  

The Aussie hotels that made the list

Capella Sydney was named The Best Hotel in Oceania 2025, scoring a strong 12th place in the overall rankings. Housed in an Edwardian sandstone building once home to the Department of Education, the heritage-listed icon exudes contemporary opulence with its grand architectural bones and curated local artwork. Expect personalised touches, intriguing objets d’art and intimate elegance across 192 rooms and suites.  

Meanwhile, The Calile Hotel,  located in Brisbane’s hip hood of Fortitude Valley, was accoladed no.34 in the global rankings. This marks the third consecutive year it has been featured on the list, with the hotel awarded no.12 in 2023 and no.25 in 2024. It’s not hard to see why. The hotel leans hard into a modernist Miami-meets-Palm-Springs energy with 175 guest rooms and suites dressed in pastel palettes. But the pièce de résistance is the breathtaking botanical pool deck, where guests can kick back beneath cute-as-a-button sage umbrellas.  

The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025 list

1. Rosewood Hong Kong, Hong Kong 
2. Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Bangkok 
3.  Capella Bangkok, Bangkok 
4. Passalacqua, Lake Como 
5. Raffles Singapore, Singapore 
6. Atlantis The Royal, Dubai 
7. Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Bangkok 
8. Chablé Yucatán, Chocholá 
9. Four Seasons Firenze, Florence 
10. Upper House Hong Kong, Hong Kong 
11. Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro 
12. Capella Sydney, Sydney 
13. Royal Mansour, Marrakech 
14. Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, Beijing 
15. Bulgari Tokyo, Tokyo 
16. Claridge’s, London 
17. Four Seasons Astir Palace, Athens 
18. Desa Potato Head, Bali 
19. Le Bristol, Paris 
20. Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab, Dubai 
21. Cheval Blanc Paris, Paris 
22. Bulgari Roma, Rome 
23. Hôtel de Crillon, Paris 
24. Rosewood São Paulo, São Paulo 
25. Aman Tokyo, Tokyo 
26. Hotel Il Pellicano, Porto Ercole 
27. Hôtel du Couvent, Nice 
28. Soneva Fushi, Maldives 
29. The Connaught, London 
30. La Mamounia, Marrakech 
31. Raffles London at The OWO, London 
32. The Emory, London 
33. Maroma, Riviera Maya 
34. The Calile, Brisbane 
35. The Lana, Dubai 
36. Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Monaco 
37.  Janu Tokyo, Tokyo 
38. The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai  
39. One&Only Mandarina, Riviera Nayarit 
40. Singita – Kruger National Park, Kruger National Park 
41. Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, Hong Kong 
42. Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles 
43. The Mark, New York 
44. Las Ventanas al Paraíso, Los Cabos 
45. The Tokyo Edition Toranomon, Tokyo 
46.  Hotel The Mitsui, Kyoto 
47. Estelle Manor, Witney 
48. Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, Rovinj 
49. Hotel Sacher Vienna, Vienna 
50. Mandapa, Bali 

How the 50 Best voting works

The World’s 50 Best Hotels is an annual ranking of the top hotel venues across the globe as voted for by a panel of more than 800 global industry experts. To ensure the panel provides a fair representation, the Academy Chairs are split across 13 geographical regions, with each chair selected as a travel and hotel expert in their region. The 13 Academy Chairs each select a voting panel from their region comprising a balance of hoteliers, travel journalists, hotel educators and consumer travel connoisseurs.