A Modern Guide to Luxury Hotels Around the World

Recognizing and understanding which hotel brand fits into which corporate portfolio can certainly be a challenge: More than 35 brands—starting with AC and Aloft—are grouped under the Marriott International umbrella alone. Hyatt has another 35 or so, including Breathless and Bunkhouse, and Hilton’s Curio and Canopy are just two of its 24 brands.

The ABCs of these increasingly diverse portfolios promise something for everyone: hotels targeted to couples and families, business travelers and leisure-seekers, rooftop bar lovers and history aficionados. For travelers who like a little extra pampering, any and all of these subcategories offer upscale options, too, whether you’re looking for a traditional luxury experience or a more contemporary version.

“Luxury no longer has to be about wainscoting and marble and tapestry,” points out a AAA inspector who covers portions of the mid-Atlantic region. “Service is still number one, but there’s also a certain vibe that defines luxury. It might be an abundance of hand-crafted furniture and imaginative art, or it could be an amazing restaurant run by a local chef.”

Here’s a look at the luxury offerings from three major hotel companies: Marriott International, Hyatt and Hilton.

M is for Marriott

With 9,600 properties and counting, Marriott International is the largest hotel chain in the world—bolstered by its 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which folded well-known brands like Sheraton and Westin into the Marriott stable.

That stable also showcases several luxury brands, including another holdover from the Starwood merger: W. Introduced in 1998 as the first corporate entry into the world of boutique hotels, W’s 70 properties are still boldly designed and public space-centric, but there’s an aura of elegance today that’s softened its shiny, hard-partying edge of yesterday. Just look at the recent $100 million transformation of the flagship W New York-Union Square, where custom furnishings and original art emphasize the building’s historic architecture and put the accent on luxe.

Two legacy brands, The Ritz-Carlton, long a synonym for “fancy hotel,” and St. Regis, revered for its sophisticated décor and immersive experiences, are also included in Marriott’s luxury group. Like W, they continue to open flagship properties in the world’s capitals, but they’re also interested in establishing a presence in the world’s most coveted beach destinations.

Rounding out the luxury group are the eponymous JW Marriott, which emphasizes well-being and personalized service, and EDITION, a design-forward brand created with Ian Schrager, a pivotal figure in modern hospitality who is credited with creating the concept of the boutique hotel back in the 1980s.

Marriott’s new and soon-to-open properties include an EDITION in Italy’s Lake Como region; resort properties from JW Marriott in Costa Rica and Costa Mujeres, north of Cancún; a third Ritz-Carlton in Beijing; new St. Regis beachfront resorts in Aruba and the Dominican Republic; and two all-inclusive resorts in Mexico’s Riviera Maya from W, which join its initial foray into the category with a just-opened all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic.

H is for Hyatt

With names like Dreams and Breathless, Hyatt packs plenty of swoon-worthy properties into its lineup of nearly 1,400 hotels and resorts. That goes double for its luxury brands.

The smallest grouping of these is Impression by Secrets, an all-inclusive, all-adults super-luxe resort option with two properties on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, and Miraval, well-known for its three spa-oriented destination resorts in Austin, Texas; Massachusetts’ Berkshires; and the original in Tucson, Arizona, which is unveiling a major restoration this winter. Park Hyatt, the largest luxury group in the portfolio, offers 48 city-focused hotels with striking art collections and well-regarded restaurants.

Alila (Sanskrit for “surprise”) seeks to forge a connection between unusual destinations and the Indigenous cultures that call them home. Whether perched high above sea level, like Alila Jabal Akhdar in Oman, or surrounded by a reef on a scenic private island in the Raa Atoll, like Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, these one-of-a-kind properties promise a memorable stay.

Unbound hotels offer decidedly urbane experiences. If your idea of spectacular leans toward the soaring and the gilded, for example, the Párisi Udvar Hotel in Hungary’s capital of Budapest, formerly a 19th-century shopping arcade, will surely impress. If you prefer quiet luxury—in all senses of the word—step out from the bustle of Manhattan’s SoHo and into The Manner, a recently opened adults-only sanctuary that’s soaked in richly colored velvets and leathers.

Highlights among Hyatt’s recent and in-the-pipeline luxury openings are Alila in Mayakoba, Riviera Maya; Miraval, The Red Sea, marking the brand’s international debut; two new-builds from Unbound in Frankfurt, Germany, and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario; and Park Hyatts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

H is also for Hilton

With nearly 9,000 properties worldwide, Hilton has more than doubled its portfolio in recent years. One fell swoop on the high end came in 2024 when it entered a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a collection of independent “anti-chain, anti-same” (to use its words) properties around the globe.

That same year, the group also announced that it was acquiring a much smaller luxury brand: NoMad—down to just one London property after the original Manhattan location closed during the pandemic—with the intention of significantly growing the line. Though the brand takes its name from the neighborhood of its first hotel, “North of Madison Square Park,” it also nods to a new breed of traveler: the digital nomad. Its up-market aesthetic, say the folks at Hilton, offers guests a residential feel that blends the grand and elegant with the intimate and playful.

Hilton’s vaunted luxury brand, Waldorf Astoria is the result of an acquisition that dates to 1949 when Conrad Hilton finally achieved his dream of owning the landmark New York hotel. More than 30 Waldorf Astorias have been added to the line since then, incorporating signature elements of that 1931 property. In the just-opened Waldorf Astoria Shanghai Qiantan, for example, the Peacock Alley bar is set amid a lush garden on the riverfront, while in the Waldorf Astoria Riviera Maya, the bar’s rendition of the original hotel’s iconic grandfather clock features motifs from the Mayan calendar.

Back in the US, the Waldorf Astoria New York recently drew open the curtains on a remarkable $2 billion restoration, while across the country in San Diego, the famed Hotel del Coronado unveiled a $550 million restoration. The latter hotel belongs to another Hilton luxury brand, LXR, which it created in 2018 as an umbrella group for independent up-market properties. Conrad, the brand’s largest high-end line, is also self-created; since its launch in 1982, it has opened more than 50 properties.

Recent and upcoming Hilton luxury openings include Waldorf Astorias in Kuala Lumpur and Morocco’s Rabat-Salé; Conrads in Athens, Greece, and Hamburg, Germany; the first LXR Hotels & Resorts in India; and NoMads in Singapore and Detroit, the latter of which will be housed within Michigan Central, the city’s recently revitalized 1913 passenger rail terminal, now a transportation innovation center.

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No question about it, there’s a lot to choose from even within the confines of the world’s most rarified hotels. It’s all great for consumers, with travelers gaining exposure to many distinct properties and exciting destinations, all within the world’s largest hospitality brands.