Rosewood Hong Kong holds the No. 1 spot in The 50 Best Hotels

Rosewood Hong Kong was named No. 1 in The 50 Best Hotels 2026 on September 15, holding on to the top spot it won a year earlier at a ceremony in Paris.

The hotel occupies a waterfront position on Victoria Harbour, with Michelin-starred restaurants, an extensive wellness offering and sculptures by Damien Hirst throughout the building, a combination judges have now rewarded two years running.

Asia dominated the wider ranking, taking 20 of the 50 places, including seven hotels in Japan alone. The extended list of properties ranked 51 to 100, released ahead of the main ceremony, spanned 23 territories and 40 cities and included 10 independent hotels, led by La Réserve Paris at No. 51.

Asian hospitality groups now compete directly with Europe's grandest addresses for the top slots.

The 50 Best Hotels crowns Asia again

France placed three more properties on that extended list, including new entries for the Ritz Paris at No. 72 and the Carlton Cannes at No. 80, while Tokyo alone supplied several of Asia's ranked hotels, among them Park Hyatt Tokyo at No. 53. The spread reinforced a pattern that has held for several years: Asian hospitality groups now compete directly with Europe's grandest addresses for the top slots, rather than filling out the list's lower half.

The Paris ceremony was also the first major event to carry the branding of The 50, the master brand 50 Best adopted on September 9, unifying its hotel, restaurant and bar rankings under one name for the first time since the original restaurants list launched in 2002.

A ranking built on inspection, not popularity

Properties are judged by an academy of well-travelled voters across design, service, personality, value and their contribution to the destination around them, criteria that have kept Rosewood Hong Kong at the top despite a wider field year on year. The organisation is expected to carry the new branding into its restaurant and bar rankings later in 2026, starting with the categories that made 50 Best's name in the first place.

For now, the hotel list stands as the clearest early signal of where the group's overhauled identity is heading, and of how firmly Asian addresses have entrenched themselves at the top of it.