Forbes selects world’s 400 best hotels

A board of more than 75 luxury travel experts participated in the selection of the 400 properties that comprise the list, including respected business leaders, experienced travel professionals, elite travel agents, as well as renowned travel writers, editors and broadcasters.

ForbesTraveler.com this week released its 2008 ForbesTraveler 400, a comprehensive expert-driven list of the top 400 hotels and resorts in the world.

A board of more than 75 luxury travel experts participated in the selection of the 400 properties that comprise the list, including respected business leaders, experienced travel professionals, elite travel agents, as well as renowned travel writers, editors and broadcasters, among them:

- Peter Greenberg, travel editor, “The Today Show” on NBC
- John Mariani, food and travel columnist at Esquire
- Erik Blachford, CEO of TerraPass, Inc.
- Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet Publications
- Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso
- George Morgan-Grenville, CMO of Abercrombie & Kent
- Todd English, chef/restaurateur and Rocco DiSpirito, chef/author
- Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post

To create the 2008 ForbesTraveler 400, the site’s editors compiled a list of nearly 800 of the world’s top-ranked hotels from a variety of respected sources (brand-new hotels and hotels closed for renovations were excluded), allowing for individual nominations beyond the original pool of properties. The board experts were then asked to rate each property on seven criteria:

- Service
- Room & Bathroom
- Décor
- Food & Beverage
- Public Areas & Facilities
- Sports & Recreation
- Location

The survey results determined the world’s top 400 hotels. Original 300-word reviews, the most extensive in the business, accompany each property, written by professional travel journalists who personally visited the properties, but did not receive any special treatment from the hotels they covered.

“The Web – and specifically sites like ForbesTraveler.com – has become the most important source of information about luxury travel,” said Barry Golson, Editor of ForbesTraveler.com. “The ForbesTraveler400 offers discriminating travelers a unique and comprehensive online guide to the world’s most luxurious hotel properties as determined by fellow discriminating travelers – a board of experts who not only travel extensively throughout the year, but who stay exclusively at five-star properties.”

Related link: HotelMarketing