If you're like the millions of folks who've taken to the skies, trains, cars, cruises — or all of the above — to travel this year, chances are you splurged a little more than you originally intended.
That's because so much pent-up travel demand from a global shutdown in 2020 has more folks than ever before returning to the skies and highways.
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"Looking at our year-on-year room night growth by region in the third quarter, Asia was up about 35%, rest of world was up mid-teens," Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer David Goulden said on the Q3-earnings call in early November. "Europe was up low double digits, and the U.S. was up low single digits. Compared to 2019, our Q3 global room night growth was 24%."
More people are zipping around the globe, which means more people are booking hotels. And since thanks to the pandemic they hadn't been able to travel as much in the past few years, many people are taking what's now called revenge travel and are willing to pay a little more to get the trip of a lifetime.
New ranking reveals the luxury brand hotels
Poised to win out from such a robust revenge-travel trend are luxury hotels, which offer cushier accommodations and add-ons, such as Michelin-rated restaurants on-site, spas, bars and much more.
Luxury Travel Intelligence, a travel-insight firm, recently compiled a ranking of the top 12 best-rated luxury hotel brands in the world using a unique dataset of qualifiers.
By measuring around 130 touch points, the firm scaled some of the top brands, both big and boutique.
"The touch points relate to overall brand performance, not the performance of individual properties. The focus is on a brand’s ability to deliver: its passion, commitment, ethos and values, as well as the quality of its management and staff," a press release reads.
It also took into account what it called continuing investment, which demonstrates an ongoing commitment to future guests, too.
The top 12, according to Luxury Travel Intelligence, are:
- Mandarin Oriental
- Oetker Collection
- Auberge Resorts Collection
- Six Senses
- Aman
- Belmond
- Four Seasons
- One&Only
- Rocco Forte Hotels
- Rosewood
- Peninsula
- Raffles
Mandarin Oriental just narrowly outdid Oetker, with 81.4% versus Oetker's 81.3%.
To qualify for the list the luxury brands needed to operate at least 10 distinct properties. Fourteen hotels were too small to be listed and ranked but were still rated highly, according to the firm.
They are, in alphabetical order:
- Airelles
- Althoff Collection
- Bulgari
- Capella
- Cheval Blanc
- JK Place
- La Reserve
- Maybourne
- Montage
- Nikki Beach
- Pendry
- Soneva
- Ultima Collection
- Virgin Limited Edition
Other notable brands, like 1 Hotels and Ritz Carlton, were "rated sufficiently to be monitored throughout the year," according to the study but were not included in the top 12 list.
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