Methodology · Hotels for Kings
How we choose.
Star ratings are an honour system. Reviews are gamed. Editorial taste is the only filter we trust. Here is exactly how we apply it.
Star ratings are an honour system. Reviews are gamed. Editorial taste is the only filter we trust. Here is exactly how we apply it.
Every hotel on this site is scored on three axes, each out of 10.
Room & Design assesses the room itself: bed, bathroom, soundproofing, view, design vocabulary, condition. The bar is set at the level of an Aman or a Four Seasons; the median across our hotels is 8.9.
Service assesses the front desk, concierge, housekeeping, F&B, and recovery (how the hotel handles things going wrong). This is where most hotels lose half a point, and where the very best gain it.
Location assesses neighbourhood, view, walkability, and noise. A 9.5 on Location means the hotel could win on address alone.
The single highest score we have given on any axis is 9.9. We do not round up.
After the score, every hotel is assessed against the eight occasions on this site: Honeymoon, Anniversary, Business, Solo Retreat, Family Holiday, Proposal, Bachelor / Bachelorette, Wellness Retreat. A hotel rarely fits more than three. The fit is what determines whether the hotel appears on the relevant occasion page.
Fit is a hard call, not a soft one. A hotel can be excellent and still fail the occasion test. The Bulgari in Tokyo, for example, is one of the best business hotels we know — and one we would not put on the family page.
We start with hotel-industry data: Forbes Five-Star, AAA Five Diamond, Michelin Hotel Keys, Conde Nast Gold List, Travel + Leisure 500, the Global Hotel Alliance, and the Leading Hotels of the World. We cross-reference with traveller-side sources: TripAdvisor at scale, Google Reviews, Booking.com clusters. We add boutiques those lists miss through editorial and travel-network knowledge.
For top-tier hotels, an editor visits or has stayed within the last 24 months. For the second tier, we rely on detailed remote assessment plus correspondent reports. Every hotel page is signed off by an editor before publication.
Affiliate commission funds this site. When you book through a 'Book This Hotel' link, we receive a commission. The commission rate is the same across every hotel — there is no incentive for us to rank one over another.
Hosted stays are sometimes accepted for high-end property visits. The hosting is disclosed on the relevant hotel page. The hosting does not influence the score; if anything, our scores for hosted stays trend slightly lower than for paid stays, because expectations are higher.
Weekly: hotel reviews, destination guides, occasion recommendations, and deal alerts.