Baffled consumers may wonder how to glean any intelligence at all from such a soup of discrepancies and contradictions. From the upcoming May issue out on May 2.
“I admit to being more distracted by some of the behavioural changes the awards have occasioned inside the industry.”
Hotel awards. Let’s talk about them; I have thoughts. Specifically, let’s talk about two recent entrants to this lucrative fray: The World’s 50 Best Hotels, which launched in 2023, followed last year by the Michelin Guide, with its Keys.
A brief explainer: Judges for The World’s 50 Best Hotels (W50BH) are invited to participate by one of nine regional Academy Chairs. All 600 judges are sworn to anonymity. No real criteria are provided; judges only have to have stayed in all seven of the hotels they nominate, in order of preference, for at least one night in the previous 18 months. The winners are announced to heavily publicised fanfare at a black-tie gala in London.
