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While luxury travel destinations that look flawless on your Instagram feed can be underwhelming (or downright disappointing), some companies do successfully give wealthy travelers the high-end experience they're hoping for when they book a trip.
To that end, LTI - Luxury Travel Intelligence (a members-only digital resource for all things luxury travel) recently released its annual ranking of the top luxury hotel brands in the world. Turns out, the consensus on which chains are the best of the best has shifted drastically since the company's last list was released.
LTI's ranking (which focused only on brands with 10 or more properties) is based on 123 "touch points" across a multitude of areas, co-founder Michael Crompton told Business Insider.
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The team of 12 researchers scored each brand on factors including staff and training, commitment to service levels, upkeep, refurbishment and new builds, marketing, the reservation processes, food and beverage standards, spa operations, and the quality of management and accessibility, among many others. The assessment process took place over the course of 12 months.
Here are the world's best luxury hotel brands, ranked in ascending order.
Arnaud Champenois, the SVP of Marketing and Brand at Belmond, told Business Insider in a statement:
"For us, luxury travel means providing exciting, never-been-done experiences combined with genuine, highly-personalized service. We strive to continually re-imagine how people might travel and discover a destination, while celebrating the history and heritage of each place."
Other brands that didn't make the cut but ranked highly enough to be monitored throughout the upcoming year included (in alphabetical order): Alila, Banyan Tree, Dorchester Collection, Fairmont, Firmdale, Jumeirah, Oberoi, Park Hyatt, Peninsula, Raffles, Ritz Carlton, Rocco Forte, Shangri-La, Soho House and The Luxury Collection.
LTI's ranking only took into account brands with 10 or more properties. Those with less than 10 that still ranked highly according to their algorithm included (in alphabetical order): Bulgari, Capella, Cheval Blanc, Maybourne, Montage, and Soneva.
