The best of the best of travel

As one of the longest-running and most trusted authorities of excellence in the travel industry, the highly-anticipated poll ranks hotels, resorts, cities and more on a variety of metrics, and publishes the crème de la crème of travel in its November issue.  This year, over 429,000 respondents submitted millions of ratings and tens of thousands of comments to create a list of winning favorites around the globe. 

Dominating the 2018 results were the Luxury and Premium brands of AccorHotels - Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel and MGallery – plus affiliate Banyan Tree and recent acquisitions SBE and 21C Musuem Hotels, which collectively had 60 properties grace this year’s list.  In particular, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts had an impressive showing with 31 hotels and resorts, almost half of the brand’s portfolio, making an appearance.

Standout properties include:

• The Savoy, A Fairmont Managed Hotel – the iconic property, which scored a remarkable 98.06 overall ranking, beat out leading hotels like the Claridge’s, The Ritz London and The Grosvenor House to claim the title of #1 Hotel in London.
• Sofitel Legend Santa Clara Cartagena - following a recent refurbishment which brought new levels of luxury to the market, this celebrated property, which 0ffers the perfect combination of colonial tradition, local hospitality and French luxury, was named the #1 Hotel in South America
• Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten – named as the #1 Hotel in Northern Europe, this always-popular grand dame was recognized for its spacious rooms, curated interiors, and two-Michelin star Haerlin restaurant.

The Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards survey was made available through a secure website at cntraveler.com/vote. This year’s tabulation of results from hundreds of thousands of respondents who submitted ratings during the voting period of April 1 through June 30, 2018, was done by Condé Nast Co/Lab.

Over 60 Luxury & Premium AccorHotels properties were singled out by Condé Nast Traveler readers as favorites within their categories, including: 

• 31 Fairmont Hotels & Resorts properties stood out
• 9 from Sofitel Hotels & Resorts (including Sofitel Legend)
• 8 MGallery (including 21C) properties
• 5 from Banyan Tree
• 3 Raffles hotels
• 2 from SLS
• The Delano South Beach
• The Mondrian South Beach