The Ritz-Carlton

The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong is the highest hotel in the world, occupying the top of the International Commerce Centre in West Kowloon with guest rooms on floors 106 to 118. Its 118th-floor pool is indoor, under a 28-metre LED ceiling, and OZONE on the same level is the world's highest bar.

"The highest hotel in the world, with a 118th floor indoor pool under an LED ceiling and the highest bar on earth at Ozone."

Aggregate 9.2/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Hotel status, room product and Michelin ratings were verified against official sources and the 2026 Michelin Guide in July 2026.

What makes The Ritz-Carlton special?

Height is the product here, and the numbers back it. The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong occupies the top of the International Commerce Centre, making it the highest hotel in the world, with every room and suite 490 metres above sea level. Arrival is a 90-second lift ride to the 103rd floor, into a lobby beneath a large ceiling mural. OZONE, on level 118, is the highest bar in the world. The pool shares that floor, and this is where most write-ups go wrong: it is an indoor, glass-enclosed pool with a 28-metre by 7-metre LED screen set into the ceiling, not an outdoor infinity pool. There is an outdoor terrace and a glass-enclosed bar alongside it. Dining is genuinely strong, with three Michelin stars across two restaurants in the 2026 guide, and Tin Lung Heen's Chef Paul Lau Ping-lui took the inaugural MICHELIN Mentor Chef Award that year. The hotel holds one MICHELIN Key from the inaugural 2025 Hong Kong selection. What it does not have is a street: this is a tower hotel above a shopping mall, and everything at ground level is a lift ride away.

Which room should you book?

312 guest rooms and suites, all of them high. Guest rooms and suites occupy floors 106 to 118, with the arrival lobby, the Club Lounge and the restaurants on floors 102 and 103. Be careful with floor claims you read elsewhere: older material still says the hotel runs from 102 to 118, while the hotel's own current overview puts guest accommodation from 106 upward and dining from 102 and beyond. Every room and suite sits 490 metres above sea level, with skyline and Victoria Harbour views, so unlike most Hong Kong hotels there is no bad-view category in the conventional sense. The Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge has floor-to-ceiling windows and is the natural upgrade if you want the view with food and drink service attached. Beyond accommodation the hotel carries more than 17,000 square feet of event space, which tells you how much of its business is corporate. The variable here is not the room. It is the weather.

Where should you eat and drink?

Three Michelin stars across two restaurants, and both are worth the lift ride. Tin Lung Heen serves Cantonese cooking and dim sum on the 102nd floor in a red wood veneer room, and it holds two stars in the 2026 guide; its Chef Paul Lau Ping-lui received the inaugural MICHELIN Mentor Chef Award that year. Tosca di Angelo is the Italian room, opera-inspired, with an open kitchen and harbour views, and it holds one star. The remaining three venues are less formal. Cafe 103 runs lunch and dinner buffets on the 103rd floor. The Lounge and Bar does all-day dining and afternoon tea with the harbour in front of you. OZONE, on level 118, is the highest bar in the world, and it is a destination in its own right, which means it fills with non-residents at sunset. Book Tin Lung Heen and any sunset OZONE table well in advance. Note that the hotel holds no three-star restaurant, whatever the height suggests.

What is the spa and pool like?

The pool is the headline and it is indoor. It sits on the 118th floor behind glass, under a 28-metre by 7-metre LED screen set into the ceiling, which is the most photographed single space in Hong Kong hotel marketing. There is an outdoor terrace and a glass-enclosed bar on the same level, plus a hot tub. Do not book expecting an outdoor infinity pool, because this is not one. The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Hong Kong sits on the 116th floor with nine deluxe treatment rooms and two couple's suites, combining advanced skincare technology with traditional massage, and is widely reported at around 860 square metres. One correction: older third-party write-ups call it an ESPA spa, but the hotel's own current site does not use that name, so treat the ESPA branding as unconfirmed.

Where is The Ritz-Carlton, and how do you get there?

The hotel sits above the Elements mall in West Kowloon, at 1 Austin Road West, inside the International Commerce Centre. The hotel's own wording places it in Tsim Sha Tsui within the West Kowloon district, but in practice it is a short distance west of Tsim Sha Tsui proper, and that distinction matters when you plan evenings. Transport is excellent. Kowloon Station, on the Airport Express and Tung Chung Line, and Austin Station, on the West Rail Line, are both connected directly through Elements. The Airport Express reaches Hong Kong International Airport in 21 minutes, and the road distance is 32.0 kilometres. Hong Kong West Kowloon high-speed rail station, for mainland services, is adjacent. What is missing is walkable street life: Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier is roughly 25 to 30 minutes on foot or a short taxi ride, and Central is across the water, so most evenings out start with a train or a cab.

What do guests consistently say?

The view is what guests remember, when they get one. Praise centres on the sheer altitude, the 118th-floor pool under its LED ceiling, OZONE at sunset and the quality of Tin Lung Heen, which several guests treat as reason enough to stay. Because every room sits 490 metres up, guests rarely feel they drew a poor category, which is unusual in this city, and the Airport Express connection through Elements is a practical favourite for anyone flying in and out. Set against that, three themes recur. Guests regularly report that low cloud and haze erase the view completely, sometimes for an entire stay, which is painful when height is the whole premium. A recurring complaint is the arrival and departure sequence through the Elements mall with multiple lift changes, which feels laborious with luggage. And guests note there is nothing to walk to at street level, so West Kowloon evenings need a taxi or the MTR. Treat these as directional review themes rather than measured findings.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

Three problems, and the first is out of the hotel's control. Low cloud and haze routinely erase the view entirely, which is the whole reason guests pay to stay 490 metres up; there is no refund for weather, and Hong Kong's humid months deliver plenty of it. Second, getting in and out is a project. Arrival runs through the Elements mall and involves multiple lift changes, and with luggage that is genuinely tiring. Third, West Kowloon is cut off from the bar, restaurant and street life of Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, so most evenings need a taxi or an MTR trip, and there is nothing to walk to at street level. Two smaller notes: the pool is indoor, so there is no outdoor swimming even though there is a terrace on the same level, and the hotel holds no three-star restaurant, so if a three-star dinner is the goal you will be eating elsewhere.