The hardest thing for any hotel to achieve is consistently perfect post-stay ratings from our guests. At the end of each year, we assemble the fourteen hotels that have done it the most. These are those.
By Mark Fedeli
Marketing and Editorial Director, Tablet Hotels
Every December, we identify the hotels on Tablet that still have a flawless guest feedback score (20 out of 20). It’s an exclusive club. Only a handful of hotels maintain such excellence over time, and the fourteen most-booked of those make it onto this annual list.
From year to year, some hotels stay impeccable and stay on, while others receive a less-than-perfect rating and drop off. Permanently. Many are calling it the most cutthroat list in the hotel content world. We call it the Immaculate Collection. Madonna calls it the Flawless Fourteen. Welcome to the 2024 edition. Who’ll survive until next December? We can’t wait to find out.
Corte della Maestà
Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy
The hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio is a vision so magnificent that you’ll have a hard time believing that Italians once nicknamed the place “the dying city.” When an earthquake struck in 1685, residents fled; centuries later, an Italian psychologist and his wife bought the old seminary and transformed it into a fantastically charming guesthouse called Corte della Maestà.
Villa le Prata – Residenza del Vescovo
Montalcino, Italy
Tuscany’s Montalcino is famous for the walled hilltop city, its idyllic surroundings, and the region’s coveted sangiovese grosso wines. And to that list of attractions you can add at least one extraordinary hotel. Villa le Prata – Residenza del Vescovo is a scant five minutes’ drive from the city walls, and it’s as pure an introduction to the delights of Tuscan countryside living as you could possibly ask for.
Hotel Cortijo del Marqués
Albolote, Spain
Cortijo del Marqués is an Andalusian country manor that offers a unique escape; half an hour outside of Granada, it’s quiet, surrounded by olive groves, full of ancient charm thanks to its beautifully preserved stone architecture. It’s been kept up to date, but not quite redesigned, and while its comforts have been modernized, its atmosphere hasn’t.
Domaine des Étangs
Massignac, France
To the extent that there is such a thing as the “typical” castle hotel, Domaine des Etangs is a departure. Rather than shoehorn a dozen modern hotel rooms into a medieval floor plan, architect Isabelle Stanislas has done something slightly more clever, locating the guest rooms not within the picturesque château but scattered about the estate in separate farmhouse buildings.
Es Raco d’Artà
Artà, Spain
Es Racó d’Artà is something special: in the size of the estate, which comprises not just a farmhouse but nearly two dozen outlying casas and casitas, as well as in the sheer excellence of its design, by the well-known local architect Toni Esteva. More than a hotel, it’s a wellness-oriented retreat, complete with a spa, yoga and meditation instruction, and a location adjoining the Parc Natural de Llevant.
Casa Polanco
Mexico City, Mexico
Casa Polanco is a small and intimate boutique hotel set in one of Mexico City’s poshest neighborhoods, and it occupies what was once a private house — two of them, actually, a Forties Neocolonial mansion and the unmistakably modernist addition next door. Together they contain just 19 rooms and suites, all unique and all decorated in a style that’s unmistakably luxe but maximally tasteful.
Zannier Phum Baitang
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Once upon a time, Siem Reap was a village. A village strategically positioned as the gateway to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, mind you, but a village nonetheless, a far cry from the bustling resort destination it is today. So it makes sense that one new hotel, the 45-villa Phum Baitang, would aim to recreate the simple charm of village life, set just outside of town.
Hotel Vilòn
Rome, Italy
Hotel Vilòn aims to provide not just luxury-hotel service and comfort, but residential charm and intimacy as well. The setting, in the city’s historic center, in a 16th-century house annexed to the Palazzo Borghese, is as romantic as it gets, and close by to many of the familiar attractions. But not for a moment does it feel like a busy city-center hotel; once inside, the quiet is practically monastic.
Lupaia
Torrita di Siena, Italy
At Lupaia, the “Tuscan rustic” farmhouse charm is cranked up to eleven or twelve, especially in its open kitchen, where a daily four-course dinner is made out of produce from the hotel’s own organic garden. And it’s in plentiful supply in the rooms as well, carefully adapted from five painstakingly renovated historical structures, each of which is an architectural mosaic of Tuscan styles.
La Sultana Oualidia
Oualidia, Morocco
This fishing village of Oualidia is where Marrakchis go when the tourist season hits, and it’s where you’ll find La Sultana. The style is, in a way, exactly what you’d expect from a classic Moroccan seaside resort — stone, tadelakt, antique furnishings and original artworks. Colors are soft and sunny, and sunlight and space are both in plentiful supply.
Montecarmo12
Lisbon, Portugal
Montecarmo 12 is more than a stylish boutique hotel. Occupying a quaint corner in the neighborhood of Príncipe Real, the building is a piece of Lisbon’s history, and it’s been thoughtfully transformed by Aires Mateus, a prominent architecture firm known for its exploration of light, geometric lines, and empty spaces. Their minimalist, less-is-more philosophy is on full display here.
Sofitel Frankfurt Opera
Frankfurt, Germany
Sofitel Frankfurt Opera is set not just in the Opera District, but right on the Opernplatz itself, just across the road from the newly rebuilt Alte Oper. But it’s also the central business district, with the historic city center a short walk in the other direction. Local color, then, is a given; this Sofitel, like all its siblings, emphasizes its Frenchness, both in style and in atmosphere.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel
New York City, NY, USA
The Fifth Avenue Hotel is more than just one hotel among many in the city’s thriving NoMad neighborhood. Architecturally, it spans more than a century, combining a 1907 Renaissance-style structure with a modern 24-story glass tower. And inside, the Gilded Age glamour of its public spaces serves as the inspiration for designer Martin Brudnizki’s fantastically colorful and ornate rooms and suites.
Pioneertown Motel
Pioneertown, CA, USA
Pioneertown was born when Hollywood Western stars got sick of traveling long distances to find Old West atmosphere, and established their own Westworld in the desert near Joshua Tree. Those days are long gone, but the town is newly resurgent, as is the stylish and comfortable Pioneertown Motel. Its rooms trade Hollywood-style glamour for vintage charm with a contemporary design eye and custom furniture.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.