--- title: "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book" description: "Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, St Regis, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and Conrad compared on room, service, loyalty and rate." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization", "name": "Luxury Hotel Compare", "alternateName": "Jack Williamson", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "description": "Independent luxury hotel comparison and travel guide covering the world's top luxury destinations.", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/og/lhc-logo.png" }, "sameAs": [] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#website", "name": "Luxury Hotel Compare", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "description": "Independent luxury hotel comparisons and travel guides for the world's top destinations.", "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "potentialAction": { "@type": "SearchAction", "target": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/?search={search_term_string}", "query-input": "required name=search_term_string" } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#article", "name": "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book", "headline": "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book", "description": "Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, St Regis, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and Conrad compared on room, service, loyalty and rate.", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/og-homepage.jpg", "inLanguage": "en", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#website" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "abstract": "This comparison assesses nine luxury hotel brands on published ownership structures, loyalty terms, average nightly rate and portfolio research.", "backstory": "This comparison assesses nine luxury hotel brands on published ownership structures, loyalty terms, average nightly rate and portfolio research.", "disambiguatingDescription": "Ownership, loyalty terms and average rates last verified 12 July 2026. Research methods and funding are published at /methodology.", "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-19", "dateModified": "2026-07-12", "speakable": { "@type": "SpeakableSpecification", "cssSelector": [ "h1", ".lhc-hero-subhead", "#overview", "#verdict-section" ] } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Travel Guides", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared" } ] }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-four-seasons", "name": "Four Seasons", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-four-seasons", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Cascade Investment and Kingdom Holding" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-aman", "name": "Aman", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-aman", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Aman Group Sarl, owned by Vladislav Doronin" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-park-hyatt", "name": "Park Hyatt", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-park-hyatt", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Hyatt Hotels, controlled by the Pritzker family" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-rosewood", "name": "Rosewood", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-rosewood", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Rosewood Hotel Group, a Chow Tai Fook company" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-mandarin-oriental", "name": "Mandarin Oriental", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-mandarin-oriental", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Jardine Matheson" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-peninsula", "name": "The Peninsula", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-peninsula", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Kadoorie family" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-belmond", "name": "Belmond", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-belmond", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "LVMH" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-six-senses", "name": "Six Senses", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-six-senses", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "InterContinental Hotels Group" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-waldorf-astoria", "name": "Waldorf Astoria", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-waldorf-astoria", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Hilton" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-raffles", "name": "Raffles", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-raffles", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Accor" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-st-regis", "name": "St Regis", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-st-regis", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Marriott International" } }, { "@type": "Hotel", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-ritz-carlton", "name": "Ritz Carlton", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-ritz-carlton", "image": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Marriott International" } }, { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotels", "name": "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book", "numberOfItems": 12, "itemListOrder": "https://schema.org/ItemListOrderAscending", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-four-seasons" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-aman" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-park-hyatt" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-rosewood" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-mandarin-oriental" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-peninsula" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-belmond" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-six-senses" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-waldorf-astoria" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-raffles" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-st-regis" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-ritz-carlton" } } ] }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-four-seasons", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-four-seasons" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "The highest floor of any large luxury brand, and no points to distract you from it" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-aman", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-aman" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Thirty six properties, almost none over 55 rooms, and no programme of any kind" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-park-hyatt", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-park-hyatt" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "The only brand here where the points are genuinely worth chasing" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-rosewood", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-rosewood" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Thirty eight hotels that look like nothing else in the group they belong to" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-mandarin-oriental", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-mandarin-oriental" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "The best service in a city hotel, and a recognition scheme that is not a points programme" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-peninsula", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-peninsula" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Twelve hotels, one owner, and the least variation of any brand in this guide" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-belmond", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-belmond" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Forty seven properties, and fifteen of them are not hotels at all" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-six-senses", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-six-senses" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Wellness as the actual product, with an IHG number attached to about half of it" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-waldorf-astoria", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-waldorf-astoria" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Hilton's flagship, 40 properties, and the weakest points currency of the three chains" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-raffles", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-raffles" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Eighteen hotels, most of them restorations, inside the largest loyalty programme in Europe" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-st-regis", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-st-regis" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "Sixty one hotels, a butler on every floor, and Bonvoy points at the top of the chart" }, { "@type": "Review", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#review-ritz-carlton", "itemReviewed": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#hotel-ritz-carlton" }, "author": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about#jack-williamson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/#organization" }, "reviewBody": "The largest luxury brand here, and the one with the widest gap between best and worst" }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#faq", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brand is the most consistent?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, and it is not especially close among the large brands. With 133 hotels and resorts in 47 countries it has the highest floor of any group at this size, meaning the worst Four Seasons you are likely to book is still a good hotel. The Peninsula is more consistent still, but with only 12 properties in 9 countries it is rarely an option." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brands have no loyalty programme?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula and Belmond have no conventional points currency. Four Seasons, Rosewood, Peninsula and Belmond run advisor channel programmes instead, which give breakfast for two, an upgrade and a credit of 100 dollars or more at the same rate you would pay direct. Mandarin Oriental runs Fans of M.O., which lets you choose two privileges per stay but earns nothing." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are hotel points worth chasing at luxury brands?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Only at Park Hyatt, and to a lesser extent at Waldorf Astoria if you already hold Hilton status. A World of Hyatt point is commonly valued around 1.5 cents, against roughly 0.73 cents for Marriott Bonvoy and about 0.5 cents for Hilton Honors. At Ritz Carlton and St Regis, category 9 award nights run 88,000 to 152,000 points, which is a lot of earning for about 1,100 dollars of value." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the difference between Ritz Carlton and St Regis?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Both belong to Marriott and both earn Marriott Bonvoy, but St Regis is smaller at 61 hotels against 119, older as a name, and built around butler service that is standard at every property rather than a suite upsell. Ritz Carlton has far wider coverage and a far wider quality range. If the two are equally priced in a city, I would check when each building was last renovated before choosing." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is Aman worth the money?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It depends entirely on whether you want a hotel or a place. Most Aman properties have fewer than 55 rooms and the staff ratios follow from that, which is what you are paying for. Bloomberg reported Aman resorts command more than 2,000 dollars a night in any destination and that Aman New York opened with suites from 3,200 dollars. There is no loyalty programme and no advisor perk worth chasing, so the rate is the rate." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brand is best for families?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, for depth of facilities and because its resorts are designed with children in them rather than around them. Rosewood is a strong second at the resort properties. Aman and Six Senses are both poor choices with young children: Aman because the properties are quiet and expensive by the room, Six Senses because the resorts are remote and the tone is deliberately low key." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How many hotels does each luxury brand have?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "As of September 2026: Four Seasons 133 hotels and resorts, Ritz Carlton 119, St Regis 61, Park Hyatt 48, Waldorf Astoria 40, Rosewood 38, Aman 36, Belmond 47 properties of which 32 are hotels, Mandarin Oriental 46, Six Senses 28, Raffles 18 and The Peninsula 12. Counts move, so treat these as the position on the date shown." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Who owns Four Seasons, Aman and Rosewood?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons is 71.25 per cent owned by Bill Gates's Cascade Investment and 23.75 per cent by Kingdom Holding. Aman is owned and chaired by Vladislav Doronin through Aman Group Sarl, based in Baar in Switzerland. Rosewood belongs to Rosewood Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, and is run by Sonia Cheng." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Four Seasons Preferred Partner and how do I use it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It is a programme for selected travel advisors that costs you nothing. Book a Four Seasons through a Preferred Partner agency at the same published rate and you get breakfast for two per bedroom, a room upgrade subject to availability and a property credit starting at 100 dollars. There is no minimum stay. Rosewood Elite, Peninsula PenClub, Belmond Bellini Club and the Mandarin Oriental Fan Club all work the same way." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do Six Senses stays earn IHG points?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Some do. IHG bought Six Senses for 300 million dollars in a deal announced in February 2019, but only 15 of the 28 properties participate in IHG One Rewards. Where it applies you can earn up to 10 points per eligible dollar and Diamond and Platinum members get breakfast for two, though confirmed suite upgrades do not apply as they do elsewhere in IHG. Check the specific resort before assuming." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which brand has the best elite status?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "World of Hyatt Globalist, which needs 60 elite nights a year. It gives full breakfast with gratuity at every property, unlimited suite upgrades subject to availability, guaranteed 4pm checkout, waived resort fees on all stays and waived parking on award stays. Marriott Titanium and Hilton Diamond both stop short of several of those, and Hilton does not confirm suite upgrades in advance at all." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Did Hyatt devalue Park Hyatt award nights in 2026?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. On 20 May 2026 World of Hyatt replaced its three pricing tiers with five bands. Category 8, where most Park Hyatts sit, previously ran 35,000 to 45,000 points a night and now tops out at 75,000, an increase of up to 67 per cent at peak. The moderate band sits roughly 25 per cent above the old standard rate across all categories. Park Hyatt still prices below a comparable Ritz Carlton on points, but by less than it did." } } ] } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Luxury Hotel Brands Compared: Which One to Book", "description": "Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, St Regis, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and Conrad compared on room, service, loyalty and rate.", "datePublished": "2026-09-19", "dateModified": "2026-09-19", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jack Williamson", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/about" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Luxury Hotel Compare", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Travel guides", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Luxury hotel brands compared", "item": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared" } ] }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brand is the most consistent?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, and it is not especially close among the large brands. With 133 hotels and resorts in 47 countries it has the highest floor of any group at this size, meaning the worst Four Seasons you are likely to book is still a good hotel. The Peninsula is more consistent still, but with only 12 properties in 9 countries it is rarely an option." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brands have no loyalty programme?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula and Belmond have no conventional points currency. Four Seasons, Rosewood, Peninsula and Belmond run advisor channel programmes instead, which give breakfast for two, an upgrade and a credit of 100 dollars or more at the same rate you would pay direct. Mandarin Oriental runs Fans of M.O., which lets you choose two privileges per stay but earns nothing." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are hotel points worth chasing at luxury brands?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Only at Park Hyatt, and to a lesser extent at Waldorf Astoria if you already hold Hilton status. A World of Hyatt point is commonly valued around 1.5 cents, against roughly 0.73 cents for Marriott Bonvoy and about 0.5 cents for Hilton Honors. At Ritz Carlton and St Regis, category 9 award nights run 88,000 to 152,000 points, which is a lot of earning for about 1,100 dollars of value." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the difference between Ritz Carlton and St Regis?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Both belong to Marriott and both earn Marriott Bonvoy, but St Regis is smaller at 61 hotels against 119, older as a name, and built around butler service that is standard at every property rather than a suite upsell. Ritz Carlton has far wider coverage and a far wider quality range. If the two are equally priced in a city, I would check when each building was last renovated before choosing." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is Aman worth the money?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It depends entirely on whether you want a hotel or a place. Most Aman properties have fewer than 55 rooms and the staff ratios follow from that, which is what you are paying for. Bloomberg reported Aman resorts command more than 2,000 dollars a night in any destination and that Aman New York opened with suites from 3,200 dollars. There is no loyalty programme and no advisor perk worth chasing, so the rate is the rate." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which luxury hotel brand is best for families?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons, for depth of facilities and because its resorts are designed with children in them rather than around them. Rosewood is a strong second at the resort properties. Aman and Six Senses are both poor choices with young children: Aman because the properties are quiet and expensive by the room, Six Senses because the resorts are remote and the tone is deliberately low key." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How many hotels does each luxury brand have?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "As of September 2026: Four Seasons 133 hotels and resorts, Ritz Carlton 119, St Regis 61, Park Hyatt 48, Waldorf Astoria 40, Rosewood 38, Aman 36, Belmond 47 properties of which 32 are hotels, Mandarin Oriental 46, Six Senses 28, Raffles 18 and The Peninsula 12. Counts move, so treat these as the position on the date shown." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Who owns Four Seasons, Aman and Rosewood?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Four Seasons is 71.25 per cent owned by Bill Gates's Cascade Investment and 23.75 per cent by Kingdom Holding. Aman is owned and chaired by Vladislav Doronin through Aman Group Sarl, based in Baar in Switzerland. Rosewood belongs to Rosewood Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, and is run by Sonia Cheng." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Four Seasons Preferred Partner and how do I use it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It is a programme for selected travel advisors that costs you nothing. Book a Four Seasons through a Preferred Partner agency at the same published rate and you get breakfast for two per bedroom, a room upgrade subject to availability and a property credit starting at 100 dollars. There is no minimum stay. Rosewood Elite, Peninsula PenClub, Belmond Bellini Club and the Mandarin Oriental Fan Club all work the same way." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do Six Senses stays earn IHG points?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Some do. IHG bought Six Senses for 300 million dollars in a deal announced in February 2019, but only 15 of the 28 properties participate in IHG One Rewards. Where it applies you can earn up to 10 points per eligible dollar and Diamond and Platinum members get breakfast for two, though confirmed suite upgrades do not apply as they do elsewhere in IHG. Check the specific resort before assuming." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which brand has the best elite status?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "World of Hyatt Globalist, which needs 60 elite nights a year. It gives full breakfast with gratuity at every property, unlimited suite upgrades subject to availability, guaranteed 4pm checkout, waived resort fees on all stays and waived parking on award stays. Marriott Titanium and Hilton Diamond both stop short of several of those, and Hilton does not confirm suite upgrades in advance at all." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Did Hyatt devalue Park Hyatt award nights in 2026?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. On 20 May 2026 World of Hyatt replaced its three pricing tiers with five bands. Category 8, where most Park Hyatts sit, previously ran 35,000 to 45,000 points a night and now tops out at 75,000, an increase of up to 67 per cent at peak. The moderate band sits roughly 25 per cent above the old standard rate across all categories. Park Hyatt still prices below a comparable Ritz Carlton on points, but by less than it did." } } ] }, { "@type": "ItemList", "itemListOrder": "https://schema.org/ItemListOrderAscending", "numberOfItems": 12, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Four Seasons", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#four-seasons", "description": "The highest floor of any large luxury brand, and no points to distract you from it" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Aman", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#aman", "description": "Thirty six properties, almost none over 55 rooms, and no programme of any kind" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Park Hyatt", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#park-hyatt", "description": "The only brand here where the points are genuinely worth chasing" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Rosewood", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#rosewood", "description": "Thirty eight hotels that look like nothing else in the group they belong to" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Mandarin Oriental", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#mandarin-oriental", "description": "The best service in a city hotel, and a recognition scheme that is not a points programme" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "The Peninsula", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#peninsula", "description": "Twelve hotels, one owner, and the least variation of any brand in this guide" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Belmond", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#belmond", "description": "Forty seven properties, and fifteen of them are not hotels at all" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Six Senses", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#six-senses", "description": "Wellness as the actual product, with an IHG number attached to about half of it" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Waldorf Astoria", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#waldorf-astoria", "description": "Hilton's flagship, 40 properties, and the weakest points currency of the three chains" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Raffles", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#raffles", "description": "Eighteen hotels, most of them restorations, inside the largest loyalty programme in Europe" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "St Regis", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#st-regis", "description": "Sixty one hotels, a butler on every floor, and Bonvoy points at the top of the chart" } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Hotel", "name": "Ritz Carlton", "url": "https://luxuryhotelcompare.com/travel-guides/luxury-hotel-brands-compared#ritz-carlton", "description": "The largest luxury brand here, and the one with the widest gap between best and worst" } } ] } ] } ] --- [L Luxury Hotel Compare Indep · Editorial · 2026 ](/) Destinations Guides [Best eSIM](/travel-guides/best-esim-international-travel-2026)[Priority Pass Review](/airport-lounges)[Best Luxury Luggage](/suitcases) [Book Via Booking.com](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3Dluxury%2Bhotels%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) In this guide Compare In this guide - [Compare](#compared) - [The real decision](#what-you-are-choosing) - [Loyalty](#loyalty) - [The ranking](#reviewed) - [Four Seasons](#four-seasons) - [Aman](#aman) - [Park Hyatt](#park-hyatt) - [Rosewood](#rosewood) - [Mandarin Oriental](#mandarin-oriental) - [The Peninsula](#peninsula) - [Six more](#more) - [Belmond](#belmond) - [Six Senses](#six-senses) - [Waldorf Astoria](#waldorf-astoria) - [Raffles](#raffles) - [St Regis](#st-regis) - [Ritz Carlton](#ritz-carlton) - [The floor](#floor) - [Why the floor matters](#floor-argument) - [Ownership](#ownership) - [What it costs](#what-it-costs) - [Left out](#left-out) - [Method](#method) - [More guides](#related) - [FAQs](#faqs) Guide facts Brands compared 12 in full, 4 excluded With a points programme 5 of 12 Largest by hotels Four Seasons, 133 Smallest by hotels The Peninsula, 12 Best value pick Park Hyatt Last verified 20 September 2026 Compare live rates across the luxury brands. [Check rates](#root) ![An aerial view of white pavilions and a long pool at a hilltop resort above the sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-amanzoe-exterior-1200w.webp) Luxury hotel brands · Compared · 2026 # The twelve luxury hotel brands, compared Twelve luxury hotel brands compared on the things that actually decide the booking: who owns them, how many hotels they have, which loyalty programme they sit in and what the worst property is like. Only three of the twelve give you points worth earning. By **Jack Williamson**, Luxury Travel Editor Published 20 September 2026 Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026 22 minute read ## The quick answer [Four Seasons](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DFour%2BSeasons%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) is the right answer more often than any other brand, because with 133 hotels and resorts in 47 countries it has the highest floor at scale. The trade is that it has no loyalty programme at all, so nothing you spend accrues, and its large city hotels are the weakest part of the portfolio. [Park Hyatt](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DPark%2BHyatt%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) is my value pick of the twelve. It is the only brand here whose points are genuinely worth earning, with a World of Hyatt point commonly valued near 1.5 cents against about 0.73 for Marriott Bonvoy and 0.5 for Hilton Honors, and Globalist status gives breakfast and a 4pm checkout at every one of its 48 hotels. If you want the opposite of a chain, [Aman](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DAman%2Bresort%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) runs 36 properties that mostly hold fewer than 55 rooms and charge accordingly. The warning is about [Ritz Carlton](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRitz%2BCarlton%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0), and it is the reason this guide exists. It is the biggest luxury brand here at 119 hotels and it has the widest gap between its best property and its worst. Tokyo and Kyoto are front rank. Several of the American resorts are openly criticised by frequent guests for dated rooms and cheap finishes. Research the individual hotel, not the crest. We may earn a commission when you use our links, at no extra cost to you. [How rankings and funding work](/methodology#how-we-make-money). ## The twelve compared Property counts are open hotels and resorts as published by each company or its parent, on the date shown. Where a group publishes a different figure from the most recent independent count, I have used the company's own and said so in the method. Read the programme column first. It is the single line that changes how you should book more than any other. Twelve luxury hotel brands compared on parent company, portfolio size, loyalty programme and typical nightly rate Brand Parent Hotels Programme Typical rate Best at [Four Seasons](#quick-answer) Cascade and Kingdom 133 in 47 countries None USD$700 to $2,500 Being reliably very good everywhere [Aman](#quick-answer) Aman Group, Doronin 36 in 20 destinations None USD$1,400 to $4,000 Places rather than hotels [Park Hyatt](#quick-answer) Hyatt 48 in 27 countries World of Hyatt USD$450 to $1,100 Points that are actually worth earning [Rosewood](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRosewood%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) Chow Tai Fook 38 in 23 countries Rosewood Elite, advisor USD$700 to $2,200 Hotels that look like nowhere else [Mandarin Oriental](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DMandarin%2BOriental%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) Jardine Matheson 46 properties Fans of M.O. USD$650 to $1,900 City hotels and spas [The Peninsula](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DThe%2BPeninsula%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) HK and Shanghai Hotels 12 in 9 countries PenClub, advisor USD$700 to $1,600 Never dropping below its own standard [Belmond](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DBelmond%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) LVMH 32 hotels, 47 properties Bellini Club, advisor USD$600 to $2,400 Buildings and trains with a past [Six Senses](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DSix%2BSenses%2Bresort%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) IHG 28 in 24 countries IHG One Rewards, 15 only USD$700 to $2,600 Wellness as the actual product [Waldorf Astoria](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DWaldorf%2BAstoria%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) Hilton 40 in 22 countries Hilton Honors USD$450 to $1,900 Landmark buildings on Hilton points [Raffles](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRaffles%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) Accor 18 open ALL Accor USD$600 to $1,800 Restoring buildings that already mattered [St Regis](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DSt%2BRegis%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0) Marriott 61 worldwide Marriott Bonvoy USD$550 to $2,000 Butler service and formality [Ritz Carlton](#quick-answer) Marriott 119 in 30 countries Marriott Bonvoy USD$450 to $1,500 Being somewhere near you Sources for the counts, all checked 20 September 2026: Hilton's own Waldorf Astoria fact sheet for 40 properties in 22 countries as of August 2026, the Six Senses resort directory for 28 in 24 countries, Marriott for 61 St Regis hotels as of December 2025 and 119 Ritz Carlton properties with 31,179 rooms, Aman and Hyatt for 36 and 48, and the Four Seasons, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Belmond and Raffles corporate pages for the rest. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio rather than quotes for your dates. A brand is not a hotel, and the same sign covers a 450 dollar room and a 4,000 dollar one. ![Priority Pass logo](https://cdn.brandfetch.io/prioritypass.com/w/200/h/200/logo?c=1id1S46xxETYxelu0Ag) Before you fly ### The brand does not start until you reach the hotel. Eight of these twelve brands put you somewhere that needs a connection, and a long layover in a bad terminal undoes the first day of a good trip. A lounge membership has paid for itself on every long haul route I take. [See Priority Pass plans](https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=60243&awinaffid=2811492) ## What you are actually choosing between Most brand comparisons rank these companies as though you were picking a favourite. You are not. You are making four decisions at once, and they pull against each other. The first is coverage. A brand with 133 hotels is an option in the city you are going to. A brand with 12 is not. That sounds trivial until you notice that the brands with the highest standards are almost all the small ones, which means choosing the best brand and choosing the best available hotel are different exercises. The second is the currency. Five of these twelve sit inside a points programme and seven do not, and of the five only one has points I would plan a year around. The rest of the group replaces points with advisor channel benefits, which cost you nothing and which most people never use because nobody tells them the channel exists. The third is the floor. Every one of these brands has a very good hotel in it. What separates them is the bad ones, and the spread between a brand's best and worst property is the number nobody publishes. The fourth is what the brand is actually for, which is the only one the marketing answers honestly. ### Coverage against standards The pattern is consistent and it is worth stating baldly: standards fall as portfolios grow. [The Peninsula](#brands-compare) owns all twelve of its hotels and never drops. Aman has 36 properties and almost never drops. Four Seasons has 133 and drops occasionally. Ritz Carlton has 119 and drops a long way. The exception is Park Hyatt, which has 48 hotels and holds a reasonable line, and the reason is that Hyatt has been slow to sign new Park Hyatts and quick to move properties to Andaz or Alila when they do not fit. Restraint in the development department is what a consistent brand actually looks like from the inside. ### What the advisor channels are, and why they are free Four Seasons Preferred Partner, [Rosewood](#brands-compare) Elite, Peninsula PenClub, [Belmond](#brands-compare) Bellini Club and the [Mandarin Oriental](#brands-compare) Fan Club all work the same way. The hotel pays a commission to a travel advisor for bringing the booking. In exchange the hotel adds benefits to your stay. You pay the published rate either way, so booking direct means the hotel keeps the commission and you get nothing. The benefits are not trivial. Breakfast for two at a Four Seasons is 80 to 120 dollars a day. A guaranteed upgrade at booking, which only PenClub offers, can be worth several hundred a night. A 100 to 220 dollar property credit at a Belmond covers dinner. Over a four night stay the package is routinely worth more than a free night from a points programme. The catch is that these are per property and per programme, you usually cannot stack them with a corporate rate, and at Mandarin Oriental you must choose between Fans of M.O. and the advisor Fan Club rather than having both. ## The loyalty question, answered with numbers This is the table I would read first if I stayed in hotels more than twenty nights a year. Point values are the reasonable redemption values published by the loyalty analysts who track them, not the inflated numbers the programmes themselves imply. The column that matters is the last one. A programme is worth chasing when the elite benefits are contractual rather than discretionary, and when the points buy something the cash rate does not. Loyalty programmes at the twelve luxury hotel brands, with point values, top elite tier and what it delivers Brand Programme Point value Top tier What it actually gets you Chase it? [Park Hyatt](#park-hyatt) World of Hyatt About 1.5 cents Globalist, 60 nights Full breakfast, 4pm checkout, resort fees waived Yes, the only clear yes here [St Regis](#st-regis) Marriott Bonvoy About 0.73 cents Titanium, 75 nights Suite night awards, lounge, 5th night free on awards Only if you already hold Bonvoy [Ritz Carlton](#ritz-carlton) Marriott Bonvoy About 0.73 cents Titanium, 75 nights Same as St Regis, at 88,000 to 198,000 a night Redeem only if the points exist [Waldorf Astoria](#waldorf-astoria) Hilton Honors About 0.5 cents Diamond Breakfast or credit, lounge, space available upgrades Earn, do not redeem [Six Senses](#six-senses) IHG One Rewards 0.5 to 1.0 cents Diamond Breakfast for two, but only at 15 of 28 resorts Check the property first [Raffles](#raffles) ALL Accor Fixed euro conversion Diamond and above Points off the bill rather than award nights A rebate, not a strategy [Four Seasons](#four-seasons) None Not applicable Preferred Partner, advisor Breakfast for two, upgrade, credit from 100 dollars Use the advisor channel instead [Rosewood](#rosewood) None Not applicable Rosewood Elite, advisor Breakfast for two, upgrade, property credit Use the advisor channel instead [The Peninsula](#peninsula) None Not applicable PenClub, advisor Guaranteed upgrade at booking, 100 dollar credit The strongest advisor programme here [Belmond](#belmond) None Not applicable Bellini Club, advisor Breakfast for two, 100 to 220 dollar credit Use the advisor channel instead [Mandarin Oriental](#mandarin-oriental) Fans of M.O. No points earned Fans of M.O. Elite Two chosen privileges per stay, breakfast among them The advisor Fan Club beats it [Aman](#aman) None Not applicable None Nothing formal. Small hotels remember you instead There is nothing to chase Point values are reasonable redemption values published in 2026 by the analysts who track each programme: 0.73 cents for Marriott Bonvoy, 0.5 cents for Hilton Honors, about 1.5 cents for World of Hyatt and 0.5 to 1.0 cents for IHG. Marriott withdrew its published award chart but an unpublished one still governs pricing, and the category 9 range of 88,000 to 152,000 points, the 108,000 to 198,000 for the Maldives properties and the 187,500 to 327,500 seen at Ritz Carlton Reserve Nujuma all come from that. Hyatt category 8 pricing is the five band chart that replaced the old three tiers on 20 May 2026. ## The twelve, in the order I would choose them Ranked by how often each one is the right answer for a reader who can afford any of them, which is not the same as ranked by quality and definitely not by price. Every property count and ownership figure below is sourced in the method section at the end. One structural note before the list. Six of these brands are owned by companies whose main business is not hotels: an investment vehicle, a jewellery group, a luxury goods conglomerate, a Hong Kong trading house, a family office and a property developer. That shows up in how fast each one is growing and in what it is willing to put its name on. 01\. Cascade Investment and Kingdom Holding ### [Four Seasons](#quick-answer) ![A cliff above a blue bay with a terracotta coloured hotel and gardens on top of it](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/four-seasons-taormina-exterior-1200w.webp) ![An aerial view of low buildings and a pool set among long rows of vines](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/four-seasons-napa-valley-aerial-1200w.webp) ![A lodge sitting room with a stone fireplace, timber beams and windows onto mountains](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/four-seasons-jackson-hole-suite-1200w.webp) ![An open bathroom with a stone tub looking out through timber shutters into jungle](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/four-seasons-sayan-bathroom-1200w.webp) ![A long pool edged with loungers and palms under a bright sky](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/four-seasons-oahu-pool-1200w.webp) San Domenico Palace in Taormina, a fourteenth century convent that Four Seasons reopened in 2021 The highest floor of any large luxury brand, and no points to distract you from it Four Seasons runs 133 hotels and resorts and 55 residential properties across 47 countries, and it is the brand I recommend most often for one unglamorous reason: the worst Four Seasons you are likely to walk into is still a good hotel. Isadore Sharp opened the first one in Toronto in 1961 and the company is still run from there, though it has not been family owned for a long time. Bill Gates's Cascade Investment holds 71.25 per cent and Prince Al Waleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding the remaining 23.75 per cent, a split settled in September 2021 when Cascade paid 2.21 billion dollars for half of Kingdom's stake. There is no loyalty programme. None. You cannot earn a point at a Four Seasons and you cannot redeem one, and the company has never shown the slightest interest in building one. What exists instead is Four Seasons Preferred Partner, which runs through travel advisors rather than through you. Book a Four Seasons through a Preferred Partner agency at the same rate the hotel would charge you directly and you get breakfast for two, a room upgrade subject to availability and a property credit that starts at 100 dollars. There is no minimum stay. If you are booking a Four Seasons direct and paying the rack rate, you are leaving that on the table for nothing. The other thing worth knowing is where the growth is going. The company wants 180 properties open by 2033, up from roughly 130 now, and about 65 per cent of its development pipeline carries a residential component. That matters because residential money changes what gets built: more branded apartments above the hotel, more lobbies shared with owners, fewer standalone resorts in places with no real estate market. The Four Seasons of 2033 will be a different shape from the Four Seasons of 2013. The honest problem is the ceiling rather than the floor. Four Seasons very rarely produces the single best hotel in a city. It produces the second best one, reliably, in more cities than anyone else. Readers who have stayed at Four Seasons Sydney have told me it felt closer to a JW Marriott than to the brand they were paying for, and that complaint recurs in the large American city hotels more than anywhere else. Book Four Seasons when you need certainty. Book something else when you want a story. The verdict - **+**133 hotels and resorts in 47 countries, with the most consistent service floor of any large brand - **+**Preferred Partner gives breakfast for two, an upgrade and a credit from 100 dollars at no extra cost - **+**No resort fee culture and no points programme pulling the rate around - **−**Nothing to earn and nothing to redeem, so heavy travellers accrue no value - **−**The big city hotels are the weakest part of the portfolio and readers say so Typically USD$700 to USD$2,500 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DFour%2BSeasons%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.fourseasons.com/) 02\. Aman Group Sarl, owned by Vladislav Doronin ### [Aman](#quick-answer) ![An aerial view of white pavilions and a long pool at a hilltop resort above the sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-amanzoe-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with a low bed and floor to ceiling windows over a grey city](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-tokyo-guest-room-1200w.webp) ![A bed beneath a painted and gilded eighteenth century ceiling](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-venice-suite-1200w.webp) ![A timber Thai pavilion on a wooded headland above the sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-amanpuri-villa-1200w.webp) ![A concrete walled courtyard with a single tree and a shaded seating platform](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/aman-amangiri-suite-1200w.webp) Amanzoe above Porto Heli in the Peloponnese, designed by Ed Tuttle Thirty six properties, almost none over 55 rooms, and no programme of any kind Aman is the smallest brand in this guide by rooms and the largest by influence. Adrian Zecha opened Amanpuri in Phuket in 1988 with a deliberately strange proposition: very few keys, very high staff numbers, and an architectural language strong enough that guests would fly to a country they had no other reason to visit. There are now 36 hotels and resorts in 20 destinations, with 12 more in development, and the brand is owned and chaired by Vladislav Doronin, who took control in 2014. The head office is in Baar in Switzerland. Most Aman properties have fewer than 55 rooms. That single number explains almost everything else about the brand: the staff ratios, the absence of a lobby in the conventional sense, the fact that you rarely see another guest, and the rate. Bloomberg reported that Aman New York opened with premier suites starting at 3,200 dollars a night and weekend rates reaching 5,500, which made it the most expensive hotel in the city, and noted that Aman's resort properties command more than 2,000 dollars a night in any destination. For comparison, the same piece put entry level rooms at the Ritz Carlton NoMad down the street at 1,400. There is no loyalty programme and there will not be one. There is also no meaningful advisor programme in the way Four Seasons or Rosewood have built one, which means the rate is the rate. What you can do is stay enough nights to be recognised, because a 34 room hotel remembers you in a way a 400 room hotel cannot. Book the destination properties rather than the city ones if you are choosing your first Aman: Amangiri, Amankila and Amanpuri are the brand doing what it was invented to do. Aman New York is a very good hotel that happens to carry the name. The second brand is worth understanding before you book. Janu launched in 2020 as a lower priced sibling, with Janu Tokyo opening in 2024 and Janu Dubai due in 2027. Janu is louder, larger and built around wellness facilities at a scale Aman would never attempt, and it is not a cheaper Aman so much as a different company wearing a related name. If somebody recommends Janu to you as Aman on a budget, ignore them. The verdict - **+**Most properties have under 55 rooms, which changes the service arithmetic completely - **+**Architecture strong enough to be the reason for the trip rather than the base for it - **+**36 properties across 20 destinations, almost all in places nobody else builds - **−**No programme, no advisor perks worth chasing, and rates above 2,000 dollars in most destinations - **−**The city hotels are the weakest expression of an idea that was designed for remote places Typically USD$1,400 to USD$4,000 a night, higher in New York and Venice Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DAman%2Bresort%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.aman.com/) 03\. Hyatt Hotels, controlled by the Pritzker family ### [Park Hyatt](#quick-answer) ![An indoor pool under a glass roof with palms along one side and a city beyond](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/park-hyatt-tokyo-pool-1200w.webp) ![A long room lined with lit timber bookshelves and a pale floor](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/park-hyatt-tokyo-library-1200w.webp) ![A rooftop pool and loungers with a white shelled opera house across the water](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/park-hyatt-sydney-pool-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with a wall of glass looking directly at an opera house across a harbour](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/park-hyatt-sydney-guest-room-1200w.webp) ![A sitting room with a fireplace, a dark dining table and a pale sofa](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/park-hyatt-paris-suite-1200w.webp) The pool at Park Hyatt Tokyo, on the 47th floor of the Shinjuku Park Tower The only brand here where the points are genuinely worth chasing Park Hyatt is my value pick of the twelve and the reason is arithmetic rather than affection. There are 48 Park Hyatts open in 27 countries, which makes it one of the smallest chain owned luxury brands, and it sits inside World of Hyatt, which remains the best hotel loyalty currency in the business. Frequent valuations put a Hyatt point at around 1.5 cents against roughly 0.73 cents for a Marriott Bonvoy point and around 0.5 cents for a Hilton Honors point. Three times the value per point, at a brand whose cash rates undercut Four Seasons in most cities. The elite tier is the other half of the case. Globalist requires 60 elite nights a year and delivers things other programmes only imply: full breakfast for you and a guest at every property with gratuity included, unlimited suite upgrades subject to availability, guaranteed 4pm checkout, waived resort fees on all stays and waived parking on award stays. Marriott's Titanium and Hilton's Diamond both stop short of several of those. If you spend 60 nights a year in hotels and you are not chasing Globalist, you should have a reason. The award chart is where the picture darkened this year. Hyatt replaced its three tier pricing with five bands on 20 May 2026. Category 8, which is where most Park Hyatts sit, used to run 35,000 to 45,000 points a night and now tops out at 75,000, an increase of up to 67 per cent at peak. That still prices a Park Hyatt night below what Bonvoy asks for a comparable Ritz Carlton, which can run 88,000 to 152,000 points in category 9 and over 190,000 at the Maldives property, but the gap has narrowed and Hyatt has shown it will narrow it again. The drawback is choice. Forty eight properties across 27 countries means there is no Park Hyatt in a great many places you want to go, and the brand's minimalism does not suit everyone. Rooms are quiet, grey and restrained, with the art doing the talking, and if you want a hotel that feels like an occasion you will find it cool. There is also a real difference between the city hotels, which are the brand at its best, and the resorts, which are less certain. Park Hyatt Tokyo is one of the great city hotels of the world. Not every Park Hyatt is Park Hyatt Tokyo. The verdict - **+**World of Hyatt points are worth about 1.5 cents each, roughly double a Bonvoy point - **+**Globalist gives full breakfast, 4pm checkout and waived resort fees at every property - **+**48 hotels in 27 countries, small enough that standards hold - **−**The May 2026 award chart took category 8 peak pricing up to 75,000 points a night - **−**Restrained to the point of cool, and the resorts are weaker than the city hotels Typically USD$450 to USD$1,100 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DPark%2BHyatt%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.hyatt.com/brands/park-hyatt) 04\. Rosewood Hotel Group, a Chow Tai Fook company ### [Rosewood](#brands-compare) ![A tall glass tower on a waterfront seen across a harbour at dusk](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/rosewood-hong-kong-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with a curved sofa and tall windows onto a park](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/rosewood-carlyle-new-york-guest-room-1200w.webp) ![A pool and cypress trees above rolling hills at sunrise](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/rosewood-castiglion-del-bosco-pool-1200w.webp) ![A shaded terrace with loungers and a small pool looking out to a flat sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/rosewood-miyakojima-terrace-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with dark timber and a wall of glass over a city at night](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/rosewood-phnom-penh-guest-room-1200w.webp) Rosewood Hong Kong, 65 storeys on the Kowloon waterfront, which opened in 2019 Thirty eight hotels that look like nothing else in the group they belong to Rosewood has grown faster than any brand in this guide without visibly cheapening, which is rare enough to be worth saying plainly. There are 38 hotels across 23 countries and regions with 21 more in development. Caroline Rose Hunt founded it in Dallas in 1979 and opened The Mansion on Turtle Creek in 1981 by converting a cotton magnate's house, and the sensibility survived the sale: Rosewood is owned by Rosewood Hotel Group, itself a subsidiary of the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, and run by Sonia Cheng. The house philosophy is called A Sense of Place and for once the marketing line describes what actually happens. The Carlyle in New York is a 1930 apartment building with Bemelmans Bar in it and looks nothing like Rosewood Hong Kong, a 65 storey tower on the Kowloon waterfront, which in turn looks nothing like Castiglion del Bosco, a restored Tuscan borgo with a vineyard and a Brunello estate attached. You cannot predict a Rosewood from the sign outside, which is the point and also the risk. There is no points programme. Rosewood Elite is the advisor channel and it is generous by the standards of these things: daily breakfast for two per bedroom, a room upgrade on arrival subject to availability, a welcome amenity, and a property specific credit that is commonly around 100 dollars. No minimum stay, and it combines with most published rates. The practical advice is the same as at Four Seasons: find an agency in the programme, pay exactly what you would have paid, and take the breakfast. The honest drawback follows directly from the philosophy. Because each hotel is designed as its own thing, the floor across the brand is lower than at Four Seasons, and some of the newer openings feel like they were designed to sell branded residences first and rooms second. Twenty one properties in development against 38 open is a lot of pipeline for a brand whose entire proposition rests on individual attention, and the next three years will tell us whether Rosewood can hold it. For now it is the most interesting large luxury brand to book, and the one I would choose if I wanted the hotel to be the memory rather than the backdrop. The verdict - **+**Every property is designed on its own terms, so no two Rosewoods repeat - **+**Rosewood Elite gives breakfast for two, an upgrade and a credit at no extra cost - **+**38 hotels in 23 countries, including The Carlyle and Castiglion del Bosco - **−**21 properties in development is heavy growth for a brand built on individuality - **−**No points, so nothing accrues however often you stay Typically USD$700 to USD$2,200 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRosewood%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/) 05\. Jardine Matheson ### [Mandarin Oriental](#brands-compare) ![A red brick and stone Victorian hotel facade seen through trees in a park](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/mandarin-oriental-london-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A suite sitting room with pale sofas and windows onto a wide brown river](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/mandarin-oriental-bangkok-suite-1200w.webp) ![A large sitting room with cream sofas and a patterned rug under a low ceiling](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/mandarin-oriental-paris-suite-1200w.webp) ![A nineteenth century villa on a lakeshore with white umbrellas on the lawn in front](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/mandarin-oriental-lake-como-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A stone terrace with loungers looking down a lake towards lit towns at dusk](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/mandarin-oriental-lake-como-terrace-1200w.webp) Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, which reopened in 2019 The best service in a city hotel, and a recognition scheme that is not a points programme Mandarin Oriental runs 46 properties and owns 20 of them outright or in part, which is a higher ownership ratio than almost anyone else here and shows in how the hotels are run. The group traces to two hotels: The Oriental in Bangkok, whose first building opened in 1863 and burnt down two years later, and The Mandarin in Hong Kong, which opened in 1963. They merged in 1985. The company is headquartered in Central in Hong Kong, employs about 12,000 people, and in 2026 Jardine Matheson took full control of the business, ending its listed life. This is a city hotel brand that happens to own some resorts, and the city hotels are where it is best. Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Hong Kong, London and Paris all sit near the top of their markets, and the thing they share is a floor staff that remembers you between visits. The spa operation is genuinely a category leader rather than an amenity, and several of the hotels hold Michelin stars in restaurants the hotel runs itself rather than leases to a name. Fans of M.O. is the closest thing to a programme and it is not a points scheme. You do not earn and you do not redeem. What you do is pick two privileges per stay from a list that includes breakfast, a room upgrade, dining or spa credit, early check in and late checkout, with an Elite tier that adds breakfast for two and a welcome amenity and no published criteria whatsoever for how you reach it. There is also a separate Mandarin Oriental Fan Club that runs through travel advisors and is materially better, and you have to choose one channel or the other because they do not combine. In most cases the advisor channel wins. Two caveats. The first is that the resorts are a weaker proposition than the city hotels and are priced as though they were not. The second is that the brand has been expanding through conversions of existing grand hotels, which is how you get the Ritz Madrid and the Lutetia in Paris carrying the flag, and a converted palace hotel behaves like a palace hotel rather than like Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. Read the property, not the badge. The verdict - **+**46 properties with 20 wholly or partly owned, which shows in how they are run - **+**Spa and restaurant operations that lead their markets rather than fill a gap - **+**Fans of M.O. lets you take two chosen privileges on every single stay - **−**No points to earn or redeem, and no published route to the Elite tier - **−**The resorts are the weak half of the portfolio and are not priced like it Typically USD$650 to USD$1,900 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DMandarin%2BOriental%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.mandarinoriental.com/) 06\. The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Kadoorie family ### [The Peninsula](#brands-compare) ![A tall stone hotel lit at dusk above a moat and a line of trees](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/peninsula-tokyo-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A pool deck with umbrellas and loungers beside a wide strait with ferries on it](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/peninsula-istanbul-pool-1200w.webp) ![A suite sitting room with a grand piano and a wall of glass over a harbour](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/peninsula-hong-kong-suite-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with pale walls and a window onto a wide river](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/peninsula-bangkok-guest-room-1200w.webp) ![Zinc rooftops and a tall iron tower on the skyline seen from a hotel roof](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/peninsula-paris-view-1200w.webp) The Peninsula Tokyo faces the Imperial Palace gardens across Hibiya Twelve hotels, one owner, and the least variation of any brand in this guide The Peninsula is the smallest chain in this comparison and the one with the tightest floor. Twelve hotels in nine countries and territories, every one of them owned as well as operated by The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, which the Kadoorie family has controlled since the first hotel opened in Kowloon in 1928. When a company owns the buildings it is not negotiating standards with an owner who wants to cut the flower budget, and the difference is visible the moment you walk in. Twelve properties means the brand cannot be your default. There is a Peninsula in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Manila, Paris, London, Istanbul, New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills, and nowhere else. What you get in return is that the Peninsula in Istanbul, which opened in 2023, behaves like the Peninsula in Hong Kong, which is 98 years old. The fleet of house cars, usually Rolls Royces in Peninsula green, is the visible signature. The invisible one is that the room technology actually works, which is not true at several hotels charging more. PenClub is the advisor programme and it is the strongest of its kind. Every other scheme in this guide promises an upgrade subject to availability; PenClub guarantees one at the time of booking, room to room or suite to suite. On top of that you get daily breakfast for two, a 100 dollar food and beverage or spa credit once per stay, and Peninsula Time, which is check in from 6am and checkout at 10pm when the hotel can do it. It also combines with promotional and non refundable rates, which most advisor programmes will not touch. If you are booking a Peninsula any other way you are losing money. The drawback is that a twelve hotel brand in expensive cities cannot help being expensive, and the rooms, while very large by city standards, are traditional in a way that reads as conservative if you have just come from a Rosewood. There is no points currency at all. And the brand's caution about growth, which is exactly why the floor holds, means you will spend most of your travelling life staying somewhere else. The verdict - **+**All twelve hotels are owned as well as operated, so the standard does not drift - **+**PenClub guarantees the upgrade at booking rather than at check in - **+**Peninsula Time gives 6am check in and 10pm checkout when the hotel can manage it - **−**Twelve hotels in nine countries, so it is almost never an option - **−**Traditional interiors and no points programme of any kind Typically USD$700 to USD$1,600 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DThe%2BPeninsula%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.peninsula.com/) The luggage test What I pack it in ### Twelve brands, and every one of them has a doorman watching. There is no faster way to look like you do not belong in a lobby than a case with a wheel shearing off. I spent a year testing the suitcases I actually travel with and wrote up which ones survived. [Read the luggage test](/suitcases) ## Six more worth understanding 07\. LVMH ### [Belmond](#brands-compare) ![An aerial view of a large pool and formal gardens on an island beside a lagoon](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/belmond-cipriani-venice-pool-1200w.webp) ![A courtyard with blue upholstered benches against an old brick wall](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/belmond-cipriani-venice-bar-1200w.webp) ![A stone cloister corridor with painted canvases along one wall and a red runner](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/belmond-monasterio-cusco-cloister-1200w.webp) ![A pale Renaissance facade framed by an old tree on a wooded hillside](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/belmond-villa-san-michele-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A dark blue and gold train running through a green alpine valley below snow](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/belmond-orient-express-train-1200w.webp) The pool at Belmond Hotel Cipriani on Giudecca, in the largest private garden in Venice Forty seven properties, and fifteen of them are not hotels at all Belmond is the only entry in this guide where the thing you book might have wheels. The portfolio runs to 47 properties across 28 countries and territories, and it breaks down as 32 hotels, 6 tourist trains, 7 river and canal boats and 2 safari operations. James Sherwood founded it in 1976 by buying the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, then revived the Venice Simplon Orient Express, and the company traded as Orient Express Hotels until it renamed itself Belmond in March 2014. LVMH bought it in December 2018 for 3.2 billion dollars and closed the deal the following April. The hotels are old and specific. Cipriani sits on Giudecca with the largest private garden in Venice. The Monasterio in Cusco is a sixteenth century seminary with a gilded chapel and oxygen piped into the rooms for the altitude. Villa San Michele outside Florence has a facade attributed to Michelangelo. Caruso in Ravello has the infinity pool that appears on every Amalfi Coast mood board ever assembled. These are not hotels that were built to a brand standard, because most of them existed for centuries before the brand did. The Bellini Club is the advisor programme, named after the drink invented at Harry's Bar in Venice in the 1930s. It gives an upgrade at check in subject to availability, full breakfast for two daily, and a hotel credit of between 100 and 220 dollars per room per stay depending on the property, plus a 500 dollar voucher once you spend 10,000 dollars or more. On the trains and river boats the credit runs 45 to 100 dollars per person per journey. There is no points programme and LVMH has given no sign of building one. Two honest problems. First, a portfolio assembled over fifty years from buildings nobody would construct today is by definition inconsistent: rooms at some of the older Italian properties are small, awkwardly shaped and expensive, and the hotels are seasonal, so several close for months at a time. Second, LVMH ownership has pushed the brand towards fashion adjacent marketing and towards its trains, which are the highest margin thing it sells and the least like a hotel stay. Book Belmond for the building or the journey. Do not book it expecting a chain. The verdict - **+**32 hotels, 6 trains, 7 river boats and 2 safaris across 28 countries - **+**Buildings with real history, from a sixteenth century Cusco seminary to Giudecca - **+**Bellini Club gives breakfast for two and a credit of 100 to 220 dollars per stay - **−**Wildly inconsistent room product, and many properties close for the season - **−**No points programme, and the rates at the Italian properties test patience Typically USD$600 to USD$2,400 a night, more on the trains Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DBelmond%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.belmond.com/) 08\. InterContinental Hotels Group ### [Six Senses](#brands-compare) ![An aerial view of a green island with a white beach and a pale blue lagoon](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/six-senses-laamu-aerial-1200w.webp) ![An infinity pool and a thatched pavilion looking out to limestone islands](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/six-senses-yao-noi-pool-1200w.webp) ![A clifftop resort of low buildings and pools above a dark sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/six-senses-uluwatu-aerial-1200w.webp) ![A sitting room in pale lime plaster with a low sofa and a long window](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/six-senses-rome-suite-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with a wall of glass looking over terraced vineyards and a river](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/six-senses-douro-valley-room-1200w.webp) Six Senses Laamu, the only resort in its atoll in the Maldives Wellness as the actual product, with an IHG number attached to about half of it [Six Senses](#brands-compare) runs 28 hotels and resorts across 24 countries and is the only brand in this guide where the spa is the reason the property exists rather than a facility attached to it. IHG bought the company from Pegasus Capital Advisors for 300 million dollars in a deal announced in February 2019, which at the time looked like a large sum for a small collection and now looks like the cheapest luxury acquisition of the decade. The brand has since opened in Rome, London, Crans Montana and the Red Sea, and it is growing at a pace that ought to worry anyone who likes it. What it does that nobody else does at this scale is treat wellness as a programme rather than a menu. Sleep tracking, biomarker screening, longevity consultations and a resident practitioner are standard rather than upsells at most properties, and the Alchemy Bar and Earth Lab exist at every resort. The resorts themselves are dispersed low buildings in hard to reach places: Laamu in the Maldives, Zighy Bay in Oman's Musandam peninsula, Yao Noi in Phang Nga Bay, Con Dao off southern Vietnam. Six Senses Rome, built over a Roman bath house behind the Corso, is the brand's best argument that the idea works in a city. The loyalty position is where it gets complicated, and it is the thing most people get wrong. Six Senses participates in IHG One Rewards, but only 15 of the properties do. Several of the older resorts are simply not in the programme, which means you can earn and redeem at Six Senses Ibiza and not at the one you had in mind. Where it does apply you can earn up to 10 points per eligible dollar, and Diamond and Platinum members get breakfast for two, but confirmed suite upgrades do not apply the way they do elsewhere in IHG. IHG points typically return 0.5 to 1.0 cents. The drawback is the growth and the price of the philosophy. Twenty eight properties is already double what Six Senses was when IHG bought it, and the Saudi properties in particular read as a corporate owner putting a wellness brand on a state development programme. There is also a practical point people underestimate: these resorts are deliberately remote, so a Six Senses holiday often means a seaplane, a long transfer or both, and the brand's no news no shoes tone is not a joke. If you want a bar with a crowd in it, this is the wrong brand. The verdict - **+**28 resorts and hotels in 24 countries, with wellness built in rather than sold on - **+**Sleep, longevity and biomarker programmes included rather than charged as extras - **+**Part of IHG One Rewards, so some stays earn and redeem points - **−**Only 15 of the properties participate in IHG One Rewards, and suite upgrades do not apply - **−**Deliberately remote, which means seaplanes, long transfers and quiet evenings Typically USD$700 to USD$2,600 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DSix%2BSenses%2Bresort%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.sixsenses.com/) 09\. Hilton ### [Waldorf Astoria](#brands-compare) ![A row of tall seventeenth century canal houses lit from inside at dusk](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/waldorf-astoria-amsterdam-exterior-1200w.webp) ![The limestone and brick towers of a tall 1931 hotel rising above a street at dusk](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/waldorf-astoria-new-york-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A long table laid for dinner on a beach at sunset with a rock headland behind](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/waldorf-astoria-los-cabos-beach-1200w.webp) ![An aerial view of overwater villas and a green island in a pale lagoon](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/waldorf-astoria-maldives-aerial-1200w.webp) ![A long planted terrace looking west over a low city towards the sea at sunset](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/waldorf-astoria-beverly-hills-terrace-1200w.webp) Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam is six canal houses on the Herengracht knocked together Hilton's flagship, 40 properties, and the weakest points currency of the three chains [Waldorf Astoria](#brands-compare) is Hilton's luxury flag and currently runs 40 properties with 9,762 rooms across 22 countries and territories, with 36 more hotels in development. Hilton announced the collection in January 2006 by building it around the name of the New York hotel, which is the oldest and most complicated asset in the group. Anbang Insurance bought Waldorf Astoria New York in 2014 for 1.95 billion dollars, Hilton kept a 100 year management contract, the building closed for a gut renovation that ran far longer than anyone predicted, and it finally reopened on 16 July 2025 with 375 rooms instead of 1,400. The brand is more consistent than it gets credit for, and the reason is that Hilton has been fussier about what it lets carry the name than Marriott has with Ritz Carlton. Amsterdam is six seventeenth century canal houses knocked together. Los Cabos Pedregal sits at the end of a private tunnel through a headland above El Arco. Versailles Trianon Palace sits inside the palace gardens. Maldives Ithaafushi is a two island resort with a private island attached. Those are four genuinely different hotels that nonetheless feel like they belong to the same company. The loyalty case is the weakest of the three chain brands here and you should know the number. Hilton Honors points are worth roughly 0.5 cents each, against about 0.73 for Bonvoy and about 1.5 for World of Hyatt. Diamond status gets you breakfast or a food and beverage credit, lounge access and space available upgrades, but Hilton does not confirm suite upgrades in advance the way Hyatt does for Globalists. The practical consequence is that earning Honors points at a Waldorf Astoria is closer to a rebate than an investment, and Hilton's new Diamond Reserve tier, which costs around 18,000 dollars of qualifying spend to reach, does not change that maths for most people. The honest drawback is that 36 hotels in development against 40 open is very heavy growth for a brand that has spent twenty years establishing what the name means, and Hilton's development pipeline is where luxury brands historically go to be diluted. Watch what opens in the next three years. The other issue is that several existing properties are conversions of hotels that were not luxury hotels, and it shows in the corridors even when it does not show in the lobby. The verdict - **+**40 properties in 22 countries with buildings as distinct as Amsterdam's canal houses - **+**Hilton Honors status is the easiest of the three chains to reach and hold - **+**Waldorf Astoria New York reopened on 16 July 2025 after eight years closed - **−**Hilton Honors points are worth about 0.5 cents, the weakest currency of the three - **−**36 hotels in development against 40 open is a lot of pipeline for a flagship Typically USD$450 to USD$1,900 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DWaldorf%2BAstoria%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.hilton.com/en/brands/waldorf-astoria/) 10\. Accor ### [Raffles](#brands-compare) ![A white colonial building with arched verandas behind palms and a flag](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/raffles-singapore-exterior-1200w.webp) ![A grand stone staircase with a red carpet under a domed and painted ceiling](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/raffles-london-staircase-1200w.webp) ![An aerial view of a palace on a wooded island in a lake ringed by hills](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/raffles-udaipur-aerial-1200w.webp) ![A very long pool lined with loungers beside a waterfront promenade](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/raffles-doha-pool-1200w.webp) ![A room with arched glass doors, red shaded lamps and a grand piano](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/raffles-paris-bar-1200w.webp) Raffles Singapore opened in 1887 and reopened in 1991 after a full restoration Eighteen hotels, most of them restorations, inside the largest loyalty programme in Europe [Raffles](#brands-compare) is the smallest of the chain owned brands here, with 18 hotels open and several more in construction. The company was created in 1989 specifically to restore and run the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, which had opened in 1887 and by the 1980s was a national monument in poor repair. The restoration finished and the hotel reopened on 16 September 1991 with 115 suites, and the model has been repeated ever since: find a building that already means something, spend a great deal restoring it, and put the name on it. Accor has owned the brand since its 2.7 billion dollar purchase of FRHI Hotels and Resorts, agreed in 2015 and completed in July 2016. The recent openings show the strategy clearly. Raffles London at The OWO is the Old War Office on Whitehall, where Churchill worked, converted at enormous cost and opened in 2023. Raffles Udaipur sits on its own island in Udai Sagar Lake. Raffles Doha occupies one of the two scimitar shaped Katara Towers. Raffles Paris is the former Royal Monceau. These are conversions of landmarks rather than new builds, which is the opposite of what most chains do at this level. Loyalty runs through ALL Accor Live Limitless, and it is the most European programme in this guide in the sense that it behaves like a rebate scheme. You earn Reward points that convert to a euro value against your bill at a fixed rate rather than against an award chart, which makes redemptions predictable and unexciting. There is no equivalent of the Hyatt category 8 sweet spot and no confirmed suite upgrade mechanic. Accor runs regular double points promotions at Raffles specifically, which tells you how the brand is positioned inside the group. The drawback is that a brand built from restorations inherits the buildings' problems. Rooms at Raffles Singapore are enormous and rooms at some of the newer conversions are not. The suites only policy at Singapore means there is no cheap way in. And because Accor's luxury division also contains Fairmont, Sofitel Legend and Orient Express, the internal logic of where Raffles stops and the others begin is not always obvious from outside, which matters when you are comparing two Accor hotels in the same city. The verdict - **+**18 hotels, almost all of them restorations of buildings that already mattered - **+**Part of ALL Accor Live Limitless, so points convert predictably against the bill - **+**Raffles Singapore is all suites, at 115 keys, in the original 1887 building - **−**ALL points behave like a rebate and carry none of the upside of an award chart - **−**Eighteen hotels means the brand is rarely the answer in a given city Typically USD$600 to USD$1,800 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRaffles%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.raffles.com/) 11\. Marriott International ### [St Regis](#brands-compare) ![A large lagoon pool edged with palms and white sand](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/st-regis-bora-bora-pool-1200w.webp) ![A white beach with palms leaning over it and a flat turquoise lagoon beyond](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/st-regis-bora-bora-beach-1200w.webp) ![A high ceilinged hall with a chandelier, trees in pots and a chequered floor](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/st-regis-rome-lobby-1200w.webp) ![A bar counter with red topped stools and tall windows onto a canal](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/st-regis-venice-bar-1200w.webp) ![A garden of pink roses and clipped hedges with a domed church across the water behind](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/st-regis-venice-garden-1200w.webp) The St Regis Bora Bora Resort, on a motu in the lagoon off the main island Sixty one hotels, a butler on every floor, and Bonvoy points at the top of the chart [St Regis](#brands-compare) is the older and, to my mind, the better half of Marriott's luxury pair. John Jacob Astor built the original St Regis New York in 1904 as a sister to the Waldorf Astoria he part owned, and it was the first hotel in the city where every room had its own telephone. The brand as a chain began in 1998 when Starwood put the name on a property in Aspen, and Marriott acquired the whole thing when it bought Starwood in September 2016. There are now 61 St Regis hotels with more than 10,000 rooms across five continents, weighted towards Asia and the Pacific with 24 properties and the Middle East and Africa with 14. The brand rituals are real rather than decorative, which is unusual. Butler service is a standing feature at every property, not a suite category upsell, and the butlers do the unglamorous things well: unpacking, pressing, arranging the coffee before you ask. Evening sabrage of a champagne bottle at sunset and a house Bloody Mary written for the specific city are the two rituals guests remember. The New York hotel invented the Bloody Mary as the Red Snapper in 1934, which is why the drink exists on every St Regis menu in a local variation. On points, St Regis sits at the expensive end of Marriott Bonvoy and you should look at the numbers before you get excited. Marriott removed published award charts but an unpublished one still governs pricing. Category 9 properties run 88,000 to 152,000 points a night, the Maldives property runs 108,000 to 198,000, and a Bonvoy point is worth around 0.73 cents on a reasonable redemption basis. That means a 150,000 point night at a St Regis is roughly 1,100 dollars of value for points that took a great deal of spending to earn. The 5th night free on award bookings is the one mechanic worth planning around. The problem is the same one Marriott has everywhere: the floor. A 61 hotel brand run mostly through management contracts with third party owners will contain hotels where the owner has not spent money in a decade, and St Regis has several. The brand's formal register also reads as stiff in places that do not suit it, and a St Regis in a resort market often feels like a city hotel wearing sandals. Check the property's renovation date before you book. At this brand it tells you more than the brand name does. The verdict - **+**61 hotels with butler service standard at every one, not just in suites - **+**Marriott Bonvoy earning and the 5th night free on award stays - **+**The original New York hotel dates to 1904 and invented the Bloody Mary in 1934 - **−**Bonvoy points are worth about 0.73 cents and luxury awards run to 198,000 a night - **−**Third party owners mean the floor drops sharply at the weaker properties Typically USD$550 to USD$2,000 a night Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DSt%2BRegis%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://st-regis.marriott.com/) 12\. Marriott International ### [Ritz Carlton](#quick-answer) ![An aerial view of low roofs and a pool among palms above a bay](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/ritz-carlton-phulay-bay-aerial-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom with a sofa and a corner of glass looking down on a harbour](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/ritz-carlton-hong-kong-guest-room-1200w.webp) ![A suite sitting room with pale sofas and doors open to palms and the sea](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/ritz-carlton-maui-suite-1200w.webp) ![A bedroom opening onto a terrace above a river and wooded hills](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/ritz-carlton-kyoto-suite-1200w.webp) ![An indoor pool with loungers along one side and a wall of glass over a lit city](/images/guides/hotel-brands/2026/ritz-carlton-tokyo-pool-1200w.webp) Phulay Bay in Krabi, one of seven Ritz Carlton Reserve properties The largest luxury brand here, and the one with the widest gap between best and worst Ritz Carlton is the brand most people mean when they say luxury hotel, and it is the one I would tell you to research hardest before booking. There are 119 properties in 30 countries and territories with 31,179 rooms. William B. Johnson, a former Waffle House franchisee, founded the modern company in August 1983 by buying the rights to a name that had lapsed, and Marriott acquired 99 per cent of it by April 1998. There are also seven Ritz Carlton Reserve properties, which are a different product entirely: Phulay Bay, Dorado Beach, Mandapa, Zadun, Higashiyama Niseko, Rissai Valley and Nujuma. At its best the brand is as good as anything here. Ritz Carlton Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong and Geneva are all genuinely front rank hotels, and Kyoto in particular sits on the Kamo river in a building that manages restraint at a scale the brand rarely attempts. The service training is the most systematic in the industry, the Gold Standards are drilled daily, and staff carry real authority to fix problems without asking a manager. At its worst the gap is embarrassing. The criticism that recurs, from people who stay in a great many of these hotels, is that the brand has almost no enforced standards across its portfolio: Turks and Caicos has been described as having cheap finishes on one of the best beaches in the Caribbean, Denver as shabby, Philadelphia as poorly maintained, Santa Barbara as dated and dark, St Thomas as stuck somewhere around 1994. None of that is true of Tokyo. All of it is under the same sign. The service style compounds it, because a scripted greeting delivered in a tired lobby reads worse than no greeting at all. On points, Ritz Carlton sits at the top of Marriott Bonvoy along with St Regis, and the arithmetic is not generous. Category 9 runs 88,000 to 152,000 points a night, the Maldives property 108,000 to 198,000, and Reserve properties go further still: Nujuma has been seen at 187,500 to 327,500 points and Dorado Beach at 163,000 to 254,000. Against a point worth roughly 0.73 cents, those are redemptions you make because you have the points, not because they are good value. Book the individual hotel, check when it was last renovated, and treat the crest as information about the service script rather than about the building. The verdict - **+**119 hotels in 30 countries, so there is usually one where you are going - **+**The best properties, Tokyo and Kyoto among them, compete with anything in this guide - **+**Seven Ritz Carlton Reserve properties, which joined Bonvoy on 14 April 2022 - **−**The widest quality range of any brand here, with several properties openly criticised - **−**Reserve award nights have been seen at 327,500 Bonvoy points Typically USD$450 to USD$1,500 a night, far higher at Reserve Property counts, ownership and programme terms verified 20 September 2026. Rate bands are indicative entry rates across each portfolio, not quotes for your dates [Check rates](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-101801746-17288959?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fss%3DRitz%2BCarlton%2Bhotel%26checkin%3D2026-10-21%26checkout%3D2026-10-23%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_children%3D0)[Official site ↗](https://www.ritzcarlton.com/) ## The floor, not the ceiling Every brand in this guide has a hotel good enough to justify the name. The question nobody answers is what happens when the one you can actually book is not that hotel. This table is my judgement rather than a published figure, built from where each brand's weakest properties sit and what recent guests say about them repeatedly. It is the most useful thing in this guide and the least defensible, so I have said exactly what it rests on. Each luxury brand's best and worst properties, and how far apart they are Brand At its best At its worst Spread [The Peninsula](#peninsula) Hong Kong, unchanged in intent since 1928 A quiet week in a city hotel Very narrow [Aman](#aman) Amangiri, Amanpuri, Amankila A city hotel doing a resort brand's job Narrow [Four Seasons](#four-seasons) Taormina, Bora Bora, George V A large American city hotel that reads corporate Narrow to moderate [Park Hyatt](#park-hyatt) Tokyo, Paris Vendome, Kyoto A resort property with a city hotel's soul Moderate [Six Senses](#six-senses) Zighy Bay, Laamu, Rome A new build on a state development scheme Moderate [Rosewood](#rosewood) The Carlyle, Hong Kong, Castiglion del Bosco A residential tower with a hotel in the base Moderate [Mandarin Oriental](#mandarin-oriental) Bangkok, Hong Kong, London A resort priced like the city hotels Moderate [Waldorf Astoria](#waldorf-astoria) Amsterdam, Maldives, Los Cabos Pedregal A conversion that was not luxury before Moderate to wide [Raffles](#raffles) Singapore, London at The OWO, Udaipur A conversion inheriting the old room sizes Moderate to wide [Belmond](#belmond) Cipriani, Caruso, Monasterio, the trains A small dark room at an old Italian property Wide, by design [St Regis](#st-regis) New York, Venice, Rome, Bora Bora An owner who has not spent money in a decade Wide [Ritz Carlton](#ritz-carlton) Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Geneva Dated rooms and cheap finishes on a good beach Widest here Best and worst are named properties where I am confident and described generically where I am relying on patterns in recent guest reviews rather than a single stay. The Ritz Carlton complaints are the ones that recur most often among readers who stay across the portfolio, and the specific properties named in the text below are the ones named repeatedly. ## Why the floor is the number you should price Ask most people which is the better brand, Ritz Carlton or Aman, and they will tell you Aman. Ask them which is the better hotel, Ritz Carlton Kyoto or Aman New York, and the answer changes. That is the whole problem with brand comparisons, and it is why the useful question is not what a brand does at its best but what it does when nobody is watching. Ritz Carlton is the clearest case. Frequent guests who stay across the portfolio describe it as having almost no enforced standards, with a gulf between the Asian properties and the Caribbean and American ones. The specific complaints repeat: Turks and Caicos for cheap finishes on one of the best beaches in the region, Denver and Philadelphia for shabby and poorly maintained rooms, Santa Barbara for dated and dark interiors, St Thomas for a product that still reads as 1994. None of that describes Tokyo or Kyoto. All of it carries the same crest. The mechanism is not mysterious. A brand that grows through management contracts with third party owners can only enforce what the contract says, and renovation cycles are the first thing an owner defers when returns are thin. Brands that own their buildings, which here means The Peninsula and to a large extent Mandarin Oriental, do not have that conversation with themselves. Brands that grow slowly, which here means Aman and Park Hyatt, have fewer bad contracts to carry. The practical version is short. Before you book any hotel from a large luxury brand, find out when the rooms were last renovated and read the most recent fifty reviews rather than the score. A five year old renovation at a Ritz Carlton beats a fifteen year old one at a Four Seasons every time, and neither fact is anywhere on the brand's own website. ![Airalo logo](https://cdn.brandfetch.io/airalo.com/w/200/h/200/logo?c=1id1S46xxETYxelu0Ag) Staying connected ### Arriving with a working phone is worth more than the upgrade. Half these brands put you somewhere with a long transfer at the end of it, and that is exactly when you need the car company's app to open. I put a local eSIM on my phone the night before I fly. [See Airalo plans](https://airalo.tpx.lt/XJUpu9hS) ## Who owns what, and why it shows in the room Ownership is the least glamorous column in the comparison table and the most predictive one. Six of these twelve brands belong to companies whose core business is something other than hotels, and it is visible in what they build. The clearest example is growth rate. Four Seasons wants 180 properties open by 2033 against roughly 130 now, and about 65 per cent of its development pipeline carries a residential component. Waldorf Astoria has 36 hotels in development against 40 open. Rosewood has 21 in development against 38. Those are the numbers of companies whose owners want a return on a development pipeline, and they are the numbers that historically precede a brand getting thinner. Against that, The Peninsula has added four hotels since 1988 and owns every building it operates. Oetker, which I left out of this comparison, has eleven. Aman has 36 after 37 years. The companies whose owners are families or founders rather than funds are the ones that have stayed narrow, and narrow is what produces the standards everyone praises. There is one structural point people get wrong about the chain brands. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Accor mostly do not own the hotels their luxury brands operate. They sign management or franchise agreements with property owners, take a fee, and enforce a brand standard that is only as strong as the contract behind it. Four Seasons works the same way and manages to hold a higher line, which suggests the problem is not the model but how much a group is willing to walk away from. ### The six owners you would not guess - Four Seasons: Cascade Investment, Bill Gates's holding company, at 71.25 per cent, with Kingdom Holding at 23.75 per cent - Rosewood: Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the Hong Kong jewellery and property group - Belmond: LVMH, which paid 3.2 billion dollars in December 2018 - Mandarin Oriental: Jardine Matheson, which took full control in 2026 - The Peninsula: The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, run by the Kadoorie family since 1928 - Aman: Aman Group Sarl, owned and chaired by Vladislav Doronin since 2014 ## What these brands actually cost a night A brand is not a hotel and any single number for a brand's nightly rate is a fiction. Ritz Carlton covers a 450 dollar room in a secondary American city and a Reserve villa at several thousand. Four Seasons covers a 700 dollar city room and a Bora Bora overwater bungalow at four times that. The bands in the comparison table are entry rates across the portfolio and should be read as a shape rather than a quote. The shape is still informative. Three brands here are cheaper than their reputation: Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and Ritz Carlton all have an entry point under 500 dollars in a good many markets, because all three sit inside chains that need volume. Three are more expensive than almost anything: Aman, where Bloomberg reported that resorts command more than 2,000 dollars a night in any destination and Aman New York opened with suites from 3,200, Six Senses at the remote resorts, and Belmond on the trains. The rest cluster between 600 and 900 dollars for an entry room in a major city, which is the real price of a front rank hotel in 2026 and has moved a long way in five years. The useful comparison is not brand against brand but rate against what is included, and that is where the advisor programmes change the arithmetic: a Four Seasons at 900 dollars with breakfast for two and a 100 dollar credit is cheaper than a Ritz Carlton at 800 with neither. One thing to price that nobody puts in the band. Four Seasons, Peninsula and Aman largely do not run resort fees. Several Ritz Carlton and Waldorf Astoria resort properties do, and at 50 to 75 dollars a night plus parking that closes most of the gap the headline rate opened. Hyatt Globalists have resort fees waived on all stays, which is worth more over a year than most people calculate. ## The four brands I left out, and why Four brands that belong in the conversation are not in the table, and the reasons are all about whether they are a real alternative when you are choosing a hotel rather than admiring a collection. One&Only has around ten open resorts under Kerzner International and no loyalty programme. It is a resort collection rather than a brand you choose between, because in most of the places you are deciding there is no One&Only at all. It also sits alongside Atlantis and the new Siro brand inside the same company, which muddies what the name is meant to signal. Auberge Collection has 39 properties and more reach than people assume, but the weight is overwhelmingly American, with Mexico, Costa Rica and a handful in Europe. It renamed itself from Auberge Resorts in October 2025 and added a safari business of nine camps and lodges in northern Tanzania in June 2026, so it is moving. The Friedkin Group has owned it outright since 2018. Ask me again in two years. Montage International runs 14 properties in the United States and Mexico and only six of them carry the Montage name, with the other eight being Pendry. Alan Fuerstman founded it in January 2002 and it is very good at what it does, which is high end American resorts. It is not a global brand and does not claim to be. Oetker Collection has eleven hotels in six countries, including Le Bristol, Hotel du Cap and The Lanesborough, and is the strongest name here by quality per property. Eleven hotels is not a brand decision, it is a list of hotels, and that is how I would treat it. Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton, on one specific trip The head to head comparison goes property by property on service, room size, loyalty value and what each one costs on the same dates, which is the level this page does not go to. [Read the full comparison](/travel-guides/four-seasons-vs-ritz-carlton) ## How this comparison was made Every brand here was checked against the same six things: how many hotels it has open and in how many countries, who owns it and how fast it is growing, which loyalty programme it sits in and what that programme's points are actually worth, what its top elite tier contractually delivers, what an entry room costs across the portfolio, and what its weakest properties are like. Property counts come from each company's own published figures where they exist, and from the most recent independent count where they do not. Four Seasons at 133 hotels and resorts and 55 residential in 47 countries, Ritz Carlton at 119 properties and 31,179 rooms, St Regis at 61 hotels with more than 10,000 rooms as of December 2025, Waldorf Astoria at 40 properties, 9,762 rooms and 22 countries as of August 2026 from Hilton's own fact sheet, Six Senses at 28 properties in 24 countries from its own resort directory, and Park Hyatt at 48 in 27 countries. Counts move monthly. The date on this page is the date they were true. Point values are reasonable redemption values published in 2026 by the analysts who track each programme, not the values the programmes themselves promote: about 0.73 cents for a Marriott Bonvoy point, about 0.5 cents for Hilton Honors, about 1.5 cents for World of Hyatt and 0.5 to 1.0 cents for IHG. Award pricing for Marriott comes from the unpublished chart that still governs its dynamic pricing, which puts category 9 at 88,000 to 152,000 points a night and the Ritz Carlton and St Regis Maldives properties at 108,000 to 198,000. Rate bands are the weakest number on this page and I have labelled them as such throughout. They are indicative entry rates across each portfolio rather than quotes, because a brand with 119 hotels does not have a rate. Where a specific figure is quoted, such as Aman New York opening at 3,200 dollars a night for a premier suite against 1,400 for an entry room at Ritz Carlton NoMad, it comes from a dated published report and is attributed in the text. The floor table is judgement rather than data and I have said so where it appears. It is built from where each brand's weakest properties sit and from complaints that recur often enough in recent guest reviews to be a pattern rather than a bad night. Nothing in it is there because it made the piece sound balanced. Every photograph on this page was opened and looked at before it was published, and every one comes from the brand's own site or its parent company's official asset library. Each brand is represented by images from several different hotels inside it, because a brand comparison illustrated with five photographs of one property is not a brand comparison. That sounds like a low bar. It is the one this page failed last time, and it is why the whole thing was rebuilt. ## More from the hotel guides More comparisons and ranked guides from the same series. [Four Seasons vs Ritz Carlton The head to head, property by property, on service, rooms and loyalty value. › ](/travel-guides/four-seasons-vs-ritz-carlton)[The world's 50 best hotels Which individual hotels lead the global list, and which brands they belong to. › ](/travel-guides/worlds-50-best-hotels-2026)[Best luxury hotels in San Diego Ten hotels ranked on the question the brochures dodge: whether you can walk onto the sand. › ](/travel-guides/best-luxury-hotels-san-diego)[Best luxury resorts in Cabo San Lucas Ten resorts ranked on whether the beach in front of them is safe to swim. › ](/travel-guides/best-luxury-resorts-cabo-san-lucas) ## Luxury hotel brand questions The questions people actually type, answered with the figures rather than the brochure line. Which luxury hotel brand is the most consistent? Four Seasons, and it is not especially close among the large brands. With 133 hotels and resorts in 47 countries it has the highest floor of any group at this size, meaning the worst Four Seasons you are likely to book is still a good hotel. The Peninsula is more consistent still, but with only 12 properties in 9 countries it is rarely an option. Which luxury hotel brands have no loyalty programme? Four Seasons, Aman, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula and Belmond have no conventional points currency. Four Seasons, Rosewood, Peninsula and Belmond run advisor channel programmes instead, which give breakfast for two, an upgrade and a credit of 100 dollars or more at the same rate you would pay direct. Mandarin Oriental runs Fans of M.O., which lets you choose two privileges per stay but earns nothing. Are hotel points worth chasing at luxury brands? Only at Park Hyatt, and to a lesser extent at Waldorf Astoria if you already hold Hilton status. A World of Hyatt point is commonly valued around 1.5 cents, against roughly 0.73 cents for Marriott Bonvoy and about 0.5 cents for Hilton Honors. At Ritz Carlton and St Regis, category 9 award nights run 88,000 to 152,000 points, which is a lot of earning for about 1,100 dollars of value. What is the difference between Ritz Carlton and St Regis? Both belong to Marriott and both earn Marriott Bonvoy, but St Regis is smaller at 61 hotels against 119, older as a name, and built around butler service that is standard at every property rather than a suite upsell. Ritz Carlton has far wider coverage and a far wider quality range. If the two are equally priced in a city, I would check when each building was last renovated before choosing. Is Aman worth the money? It depends entirely on whether you want a hotel or a place. Most Aman properties have fewer than 55 rooms and the staff ratios follow from that, which is what you are paying for. Bloomberg reported Aman resorts command more than 2,000 dollars a night in any destination and that Aman New York opened with suites from 3,200 dollars. There is no loyalty programme and no advisor perk worth chasing, so the rate is the rate. Which luxury hotel brand is best for families? Four Seasons, for depth of facilities and because its resorts are designed with children in them rather than around them. Rosewood is a strong second at the resort properties. Aman and Six Senses are both poor choices with young children: Aman because the properties are quiet and expensive by the room, Six Senses because the resorts are remote and the tone is deliberately low key. How many hotels does each luxury brand have? As of September 2026: Four Seasons 133 hotels and resorts, Ritz Carlton 119, St Regis 61, Park Hyatt 48, Waldorf Astoria 40, Rosewood 38, Aman 36, Belmond 47 properties of which 32 are hotels, Mandarin Oriental 46, Six Senses 28, Raffles 18 and The Peninsula 12. Counts move, so treat these as the position on the date shown. Who owns Four Seasons, Aman and Rosewood? Four Seasons is 71.25 per cent owned by Bill Gates's Cascade Investment and 23.75 per cent by Kingdom Holding. Aman is owned and chaired by Vladislav Doronin through Aman Group Sarl, based in Baar in Switzerland. Rosewood belongs to Rosewood Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, and is run by Sonia Cheng. What is Four Seasons Preferred Partner and how do I use it? It is a programme for selected travel advisors that costs you nothing. Book a Four Seasons through a Preferred Partner agency at the same published rate and you get breakfast for two per bedroom, a room upgrade subject to availability and a property credit starting at 100 dollars. There is no minimum stay. Rosewood Elite, Peninsula PenClub, Belmond Bellini Club and the Mandarin Oriental Fan Club all work the same way. Do Six Senses stays earn IHG points? Some do. IHG bought Six Senses for 300 million dollars in a deal announced in February 2019, but only 15 of the 28 properties participate in IHG One Rewards. Where it applies you can earn up to 10 points per eligible dollar and Diamond and Platinum members get breakfast for two, though confirmed suite upgrades do not apply as they do elsewhere in IHG. Check the specific resort before assuming. Which brand has the best elite status? World of Hyatt Globalist, which needs 60 elite nights a year. It gives full breakfast with gratuity at every property, unlimited suite upgrades subject to availability, guaranteed 4pm checkout, waived resort fees on all stays and waived parking on award stays. Marriott Titanium and Hilton Diamond both stop short of several of those, and Hilton does not confirm suite upgrades in advance at all. Did Hyatt devalue Park Hyatt award nights in 2026? Yes. On 20 May 2026 World of Hyatt replaced its three pricing tiers with five bands. Category 8, where most Park Hyatts sit, previously ran 35,000 to 45,000 points a night and now tops out at 75,000, an increase of up to 67 per cent at peak. The moderate band sits roughly 25 per cent above the old standard rate across all categories. Park Hyatt still prices below a comparable Ritz Carlton on points, but by less than it did. [L ](/) Luxury Hotel Compare Independent reviews of the world's best hotels, written by someone who actually cares. 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