In a prestigious accolade, Passalacqua, a charming 24-room hotel situated in Italy’s Lake Como, has been crowned the World’s Best Hotel. This recognition comes as a testament to its meteoric rise in popularity since its opening in June 2022, following a painstaking restoration of its 18th-century building. Passalacqua boasts a rich history, having hosted distinguished guests such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, and Vincenzo Bellini during the 1800s.
Owners Paolo, Antonella, and Valentina De Santis, who are also known for their ownership of the beloved Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como, have played a pivotal role in Passalacqua’s rapid success. The charismatic owners have transformed the hotel into a labor of love, attracting a dedicated following. Passalacqua offers rates starting at approximately $1,800 per night for the upcoming summer season.
Valentina De Santis, visibly moved by the recognition, exclaimed, “If you can dream it, you can do it! Here we are! We don’t have big shoulders behind us, and we still arrived here.”
The World’s 50 Best Hotels list was founded by the creators of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and Bars lists, marking the first time they have compiled a ranking of the world’s finest hotels. Passalacqua’s triumph signifies a momentous achievement for the hotel and the De Santis family.
The top five hotels on the list included Rosewood Hong Kong, Four Seasons Chao Praya River in Bangkok, The Upper House in Hong Kong, and Aman Tokyo, with La Mamounia in Marrakesh rounding out the group. Despite the strong presence of Asian hotels in the top 10, the list skewed significantly toward Europe, with European properties claiming 21 of the 50 slots. Notably, independent hotels outperformed branded entities, with Marriott and Hilton featuring no entries. In contrast, Aman and Four Seasons each secured four positions, while Maybourne Hotel Group and Oetker Collection each earned three, showcasing the appeal of lesser-known luxury brands among consumers.
The announcement, held at London’s Guildhall under its dramatic Medieval arches, represents the inaugural hotels-focused list by the team behind 50 Best, renowned for its global and regional restaurant and bar rankings. William Drew, director of content at William Reed Business Media, the UK-based company responsible for compiling the 50 Best lists, emphasized the significance of this list, which has been nearly a decade in the making. He explained, “How it drives business to the hotels is important, and on a slightly less empirical level, how it encourages discovery—cultural discovery—encouraging travel to new parts of the world that you might not have done otherwise.”
While the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list has successfully propelled culinary destinations like Copenhagen or Lima into the global spotlight, the hotels list has the potential to generate increased interest in undiscovered travel destinations.
The rankings for the World’s 50 Best Hotels are determined by 580 jurors, each assigned to their roles by regional division heads known as academy chairs. Jurors cast votes for their top seven hotels based on personal experiences within the last 24 months. Future editions of the list will shorten this window to 18 months. Jurors come from various backgrounds, including hoteliers, travel agents, journalists, and industry experts. The list also features special awards, with Soneva Fushi in the Maldives receiving recognition as the Lost Explorer Best Beach Hotel, and Capella Bangkok being honored as the Nikka Best New Hotel, acknowledging the top-ranking hotel that opened during the initial two-year voting period from May 2021 to May 2023.