The ultra luxury hotel collectionHow we choose
Four tests, then the detail.
91 hotels in 17 destinations, and 411 rooms we would ask for by name. This is how a hotel gets onto the list, and what has to be true before its page goes live.
The four tests
No exceptions.
Rarity
Few rooms, a singular setting, or a story no other hotel can tell.
Calm
Quiet rooms, real privacy and service that never intrudes.
Place
A hotel that could only exist where it stands.
Honesty
We publish real rates with the date we checked them, or say when a hotel does not publish one.
Where the list starts
We start with the hotels that the most respected independent guides rate highest, such as the MICHELIN Guide's Keys and The World's 50 Best Hotels, and with what we know of each place.
From there, each hotel has to pass the four tests. A famous name is not enough. We look for hotels with a reason to exist beyond their size or their brand: a house with a history, a setting nobody else has, or rooms that are worth travelling for.
We add a destination only when at least three of its hotels are ready, so that you can compare like with like. Until then, it stays on our list of next destinations.
Before a page goes live
What every hotel page needs.
Official photos only
Every photo on a hotel page comes from the hotel's own website, with a credit. We never use stock photography, and a hotel needs at least six gallery photos before it goes live.
The rooms worth asking for
Each hotel page shows at least three of its best rooms, with the size, the layout and an official photo of that room, and a link to the room on the hotel's site.
Facts we can check
Openings, room counts, chefs, awards and season dates come from the hotel's official website or the awarding body. When we cannot confirm something, we leave it out.
Enough to decide
A hotel page has to say enough to help you choose: where it is, what it is like, which rooms to ask for and when to go. Thin pages wait until the detail is there.
Rates with a date
Where a hotel publishes a starting rate, we show it with the date we checked it. Where it does not, the page says price on request.
Seasons on the page
Hotels that close between seasons show their published dates, and a notice when they are closed.
What we never do
Hotels never pay to appear in the collection or on The RARE List. Booking site links may pay us an affiliate commission, at no extra cost to you, and we say so wherever they appear.