Luxury Travel Intelligence compared luxury hotel brands worldwide against more than 120 factors relevant to the luxury hotel sector, including brand performance, ethos and values, staff quality and more. According to the results, it released its 2019 top luxury hotel brands.

The top contender on the list was Belmond, followed by Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Aman, Oetker Collection, Auberge, Rosewood, Six Senses and St. Regis. Only brands with at least 10 properties were considered. However, Luxury Travel Intelligence gives a special nod toward brands that would have ranked highly had they enough properties in their portfolio, such as Montage, Cheval Blanc and Bulgari.

“No other organization connects with the global luxury hotel industry as LTI does. We are out there 365 days a year, with our researchers engaging with everyone from CEOs of the brands we have rated to hundreds of management, staff and guests. Primarily, this is all part of the process for creating our destination led reports for our members (affluent discerning travelers) but it also allows us to utilize our findings to create this unique report. Every year the process starts again — the results from previous years have no bearing on the following year. This will no doubt lead to some volatility in each year’s results (such as this year), but this is a dynamic sector and we want to reflect what is really happening out there,” said Michael Crompton, founder, Luxury Travel Intelligence, of the report.