World’s 50 Best Hotels judge reveals his top picks

This is not something we’re supposed to divulge, but here are my favourite lodgings this year (so far).

The recent launch of the World’s 50 Best Hotels got me thinking about memorable stays of the past year or so. Or got me thinking again, because I’d already had to trawl through my recent hotel history as a judge in the awards. This is not something we’re supposed to divulge, but I don’t expect to be invited onto the “academy” panel again. And after this column I’ll almost certainly be disqualified.

The awards gave top billing to the family-owned Passalacqua on Lake Como – by all accounts incredible and eye-wateringly expensive. Brisbane’s Calile Hotel came in at number 11 (in the world!). Three Bangkok hotels made the top 11 (Bangkok has some super-luxe hotels, but really?), four Aman properties cracked the top 50 (ditto) alongside two Sonevas and two Capellas. I have a vague idea how the voting system works; the results seem to reflect feel-pinions and savvy PR more than any sort of empirical process.

Judges must have stayed at a property within the past two years and vote for seven hotels, including three in their home region. But you also have to think globally, which ruled out some of my favourite lodgings.

I thoroughly enjoyed Osborn House in the New South Wales Southern Highlands – as I’ve written here before – but it seemed a bit niche to pitch it against the world’s best.

Likewise Hotel Vera, an impeccably restored 19th-century Ballarat terrace turned small luxury hotel, where heritage features meet designer furnishings and a gallery-worthy collection of contemporary art. Good looks aside, it’s the thoughtfulness that registers. There’s a suite for pet owners, a very chic accessible suite, and bedside induction pads that charge phones, watches and earpieces simultaneously.

In Sydney, two new arrivals grabbed my attention. Capella is a frankly stunning transformation of two sandstone CBD treasures, the departments of Agriculture and Education. Baroque meets Edwardian meets 21st-century sophistication in this lavish 192-room hotel at the harbour end of the city.

Hotel Vera is an impeccably restored 19th-century Ballarat terrace turned small luxury hotel.

There’s so much to take in – the dancing lanterns in the lobby lounge, the vertical garden, the 3000-strong art collection, the decadent Brasserie 1930 (the best table’s number 56, a semi-private window booth), and the rooftop gym, spa and 20m pool.

The thing I’m most excited about? The Lands Department on the facing side of Loftus Street that Capella’s developing into restaurants, bars and function spaces. It’s still about five years away but, my god, the history on that block. It’s home to the city’s second secret observatory (yes, there’s another one!) and a whimsical five-storey tower that once housed the archives of the fledgling colony.

At Ace Sydney it’s all about the vibe. Located in one of the grungier pockets of Surry Hills, the 257-room hotel ticks all the trademarks of the Seattle-born hotel group. Namely, a neglected heritage building with its patina of red brick and old timber overlaid with avant-garde art, rich textures and crayon colours. Record players and D’Angelico guitars in every room.

What Ace lacks in harbour views it more than makes up for with street cred. The sexy, sunken lounge bar features DJs at weekends and has become a fast hangout for hip locals. So too the all-day diner Loam and the cracking rooftop restaurant Kiln.

A very honourable mention to the Peninsula London, which I toured top to toe in June.

Lastly, a very honourable mention to the Peninsula London, which I toured top to toe in June ahead of its opening last month. Parent company Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels never does things by halves. It waited three decades for precisely the right real estate in London, finally plumping for Grosvenor Place – handy to Knightsbridge shopping and across the road from Buckingham Palace. Green and Hyde parks are basically your backyard.

The 190 rooms, even the smallest a stately 50sqm, went through “thousands of iterations” before management settled on the ideal living space. Highlights include control panels in seven languages to handle anything from room lighting to room service, onyx bathrooms and triple-glazed windows framing an ever-changing panorama of London. (Honestly I could have happily sat and watched the shifting, silent city for hours.)

The public spaces are even more impressive. The soaring lobby brings a tropical, eastern sophistication to the British capital. The astonishing porcelain beauty of the fine Chinese restaurant, tea room and bar Canton Blue is only eclipsed by the magnificent rooftop views from eighth-floor restaurant Brooklands. 

You can survey half of London from up there while reclining on stitched leather seating inspired by Rolls-Royce upholstery (the hotel has its own fleet) and dining on best-of-British cuisine by two Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi. Definitely a contender for World’s 50 Best next year.

Originally published as World’s 50 Best Hotels judge reveals his top picks