The Metropolitan is the apotheosis of the trendy boutique hotel concept — and we don’t mean ‘trendy’ in a pejorative sense, but rather as a simple statement of fact. Some hotels aim to impersonate down-home country charm, others old-money aristocracy; the Metropolitan, and the genre it stands for, aims to welcome guests into an exclusive society that appreciates the most minute signifiers of cool, from the sleek black designer uniforms on the receptionists to the meticulously feng shui’d guest rooms — minimal and Zen, yes, but not trying too hard.

Many of the world’s most stylish hotels are heavy on the public spaces, pouring money into lounges, libraries, drawing rooms, even private cinemas, while relegating the paying guests to cramped, uninspired rooms. How this works as a business proposition is quite beyond our understanding, but in this case it’s irrelevant — London’s Halkin hotel turns this stereotype inside out. Here the public spaces amount to little more than a small but handsome lobby and bar (and of course a restaurant, of which more later), while the rooms get the star treatment.

We’ll forgive you for failing to imagine that Western Australia would have a luxury hotel of the highest caliber, but such a prejudice would make your entry to Perth’s new COMO The Treasury all the more surprising and delightful. Not only is this 48-room hotel housed in a truly grand space — a series of restored 19th-century state buildings, all soaring arches and stately white columns — but the guest rooms are outfitted in a manner that’s lavish by any standard. Did we mention there’s a pair of chic restaurants, a cocktail bar, and a signature spa? It’s enough to make you want to stay in the City of Light (no, not that City of Light, the other City of Light, so nicknamed when Perth’s citizens turned all the lights on as astronaut John Glenn passed overhead in 1962) for another day or two.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan strictly limits the number of tourists allowed to enter each year at just a few thousand, fewer than pass through some individual hotels in the same span. COMO Uma, Paro takes advantage of a transcendently beautiful location and a strong indigenous Buddhist tradition in crafting a serene and possibly even spiritual hotel experience.

It’s fair to say it’s been a while since Bali was truly uncharted territory, but while parts of the island are indeed feeling the strain of development, you can trust COMO to deliver that all-important seclusion. The location, in Canggu, is where the busy south coast begins to give way to greener pastures, and the immediate setting of COMO Uma Canggu leaves you perched right above a beautiful black-sand beach, with nothing at all to distract you from the views of the surf. (Speaking of which, this stretch of beach also happens to have breaks for both novice and experienced surfers, and COMO has Tropicsurf instructors on hand to provide an introduction or a little brush-up.)

COMO Shambhala Estate makes a compelling case that — provided a spectacular setting in the Balinese rainforest just outside of Ubud, a spare-no-luxury approach to the accommodations, and a certain earnestness of purpose — healthful living and extravagant indulgence can happily share a home. Meditating in nature has never felt better. The massages with traditional oils are some of the most sublime in the world, and the resident nutritionist and Ayurvedic doctor can’t spoil the pleasure of a delicious candle-lit meal in the canopy.

Surrounded by world-famous vineyards and within easy day-trip distance of both Florence and Siena, the Chianti region of Tuscany is hardly suffering from a shortage of worthwhile attractions. But COMO Castello Del Nero takes the concept of stately country retreat a step further than various other villas and resorts in the area, offering a full-service ESPA destination spa designed to help guests unwind after pounding the city pavement on church and art tours — or perhaps to detox after one too many wine tastings.

The Maldives seem a bit like an over-the-top parody of an island holiday destination — not an island or an archipelago, but an atoll of a thousand Robinson Crusoe–sized islands, in the shallow water of a coral reef in the Indian Ocean. COMO Cocoa Island is one of these, just a ten-minute walk from end to end (and two minutes across), with absolutely nothing on it but the hotel.

How many perfect places can there be? And isn’t it a bit suspicious that so many of them seem to bear the COMO name? At this high level there’s very little to separate one purveyor of high-end perfection from another, save a personal preference for one brand’s aesthetic over another. At COMO Maalifushi, on yet another speck of an island in the Maldives, you’re made to feel as if bodily wellness and spiritual relaxation are the most fashionable things on the planet — and come to think of it, maybe they are.

There’s not much exploration left to be done. At this late date the name of the game in Phuket is castaway luxury, the sort of splendid seclusion that immerses you in the natural gifts that made this island the paradise that it is, but which keeps the inevitable crowds out of sight and out of mind. Luckily, this is precisely the task at which the COMO group excels, as is abundantly clear from the most cursory glance at the extraordinary COMO Point Yamu, Phuket.

If you haven’t actually checked in on Parrot Cay for yourself you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. It’s the kind of place that’s written about an awful lot, and its name pops up not just in the travel pages but in celebrity profiles and the society pages as well. Some of the big names in travel, though, got that way by delivering an experience that’s just head and shoulders above the norm — and this, if you’re wondering, is one of those places.

A five-minute drive from Ubud’s city center, nestled in the forested volcanic mountains that run across Bali, the twenty-nine-room Uma Ubud could hardly be farther — in geography or in mood — from the noisy beachfront resorts. It’s a COMO hotel, and while still luxurious, the Uma resorts are of a slightly more ascetic bent than their decadent cousins.

COMO Metropolitan Bangkok is the sister hotel to London’s Metropolitan — a sleek and contemporary boutique hotel, with staff outfitted in black designer uniforms, and lots of white paint and dark wood. One might be tempted to think that the sort of minimal, vaguely Oriental design that is all the rage in Western boutiques would fall flat when transplanted to the part of the world formerly known as the Orient. But one would be wrong.

Miami is one of those cities where it’s not terribly easy to breeze in and make an instant impression — this is the big leagues, hospitality-wise, and you’d better bring your best game. Not that there are any doubts about this particular entry: COMO Metropolitan, Miami Beach springs into this world fully formed, the product of a hotel group with many years of experience in some of the planet’s most demanding markets.

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