Forbes Travel Guide has announced its 2019 Star Rating winners. This is the 61st year that Forbes has released the list, recognizing the world’s finest properties and rewarding gracious, intuitive service.
The new award recipients for this year include 21 Five-Star hotels, 49 Four-Star hotels, 62 hotels in the Recommended category, and six Five-Star restaurants.
Spa Award Winners
In the spa category, eight new Five-Star and 21 new Four-Star spas have made the list.
U.S. Five-Star standouts include Las Vegas’ The Spa & Salon at ARIA, the largest Five-Star spa in the U.S., and La Prairie Spa at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, where caviar is incorporated into facials and massages. The seaside Spa At Breaker’s Palm Beach also received Five-Stars, and Houston’s brand-new The Spa at The Post Oak Hotel has become Texas’ only Five-Star spa.
Other new recipients of the Five-Star rating are The Bulgari Spa Bali, Lisbon‘s Ritz Spa, Cabo San Lucas’ The Spa at Esperanza, and Macau’s Zensa Spa.
The Peninsula Hotels is the world’s first all Five-Star hotel company
A highlight from the list of hotel winners is The Peninsula Hotels, which has made Travel Guide history by becoming the world’s first all Five-Star hotel company. The Peninsula Manila earned its fifth star this year, pushing the Hong Kong-based brand’s total to 10 Five-Star hotels.
Forbes Travel Guide rates properties in 76 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.
Countries that earned their first Five-Star hotel include Portugal (Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon), South Korea (The Shilla Seoul), Turkey (Raffles Istanbul), and Vietnam (Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai, Hoi An).
London now has the most Five-Star hotels, with four new winners, including Bulgari Hotel & Residences, London; The Langham, London; Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park, London; Shangri-La Hotel, At The Shard, London.
The U.S. added two new Five-Star hotels: Hawaii’s Four Seasons Resort Lanai and the D.C. area’s Salamander Resort & Spa.
Forbes will honor winners at Verified, The Forbes Travel Guide Luxury Summit at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on February 26 and 27.
Becoming a 5-Star spa
There are more than 200 service and facility standards in Forbes’ spa evaluation. A composite scoring of these determines the star rating. Spas with a score of 82% or higher are awarded Four-Star status while spas that score 92% or higher are awarded Five-Star status.
The system algorithm is heavily weighted toward service, so spas with dreams of joining this prestigious list should be putting extra effort into customer experience.
Amanda Fraser, Executive Vice President, Standards & Ratings, Forbes Travel Guide, once told Spa Executive in an interview, “While having a beautiful facility is absolutely necessary, spas that go above and beyond when it comes to service rise naturally in our system.”
See the list of all winners at Forbes Travel Guide.
Here is the full list of 2019 Forbes Four and Five Star Spas:
4-Star winners
- Ava Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Prague – Prague, Czech Republic
- Miraval Life in Balance Spa – Orange County CA, United States
- The Phoenician Spa – Scottsdale (AZ), United States
- Raffles Spa at Raffles Istanbul – Istanbul, Turkey
- Remède Spa Bali – Bali, Indonesia
- Remède Spa Punta Mita – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Bahrain – Bahrain
- Sense, A Rosewood Spa at Puebla – Puebla, Mexico
- Sense, A Rosewood Spa at Sanya – Sanya, China
- The Spa at Carillon Miami Beach – Miami (FL), United States
- The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club – Miami (FL), United States
- The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel London at Ten Trinity Square – London, United Kingdom
- The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C. – Washington, D.C. (DC), United States
- The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Sanya – Sanya, China
- The Spa at Sandy Lane – Barbados, Barbados
- The Spa at The Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Yalong Bay – Sanya, China
- Spa at Grand Velas Los Cabos – Los Cabos, Mexico
- Spa Pechanga – San Diego (CA), – United States
- Tria Spa at MGM Cotai – Macau, China
- Tria Spa at MGM Macau – Macau, China
5-Star winners
- The Bulgari Spa Bali – Bali, Indonesia
- La Prairie Spa at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills – Los Angeles (CA), United States
- Ritz Spa – Lisbon, Portugal
- The Spa & Salon at ARIA – Las Vegas (NV), United States
- The Spa at Esperanza – Cabos, Mexico
- The Spa at The Breakers Palm Beach – Palm Beach (FL), United States
- The Spa at The Post Oak Hotel – Houston (TX), United States
- Zensa Spa – Macau, China
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