Every review on this site follows the same method. This page sets it out in full, because a score you cannot interrogate is just a decoration.
The 200-point inspection
Each hotel is assessed against a 200-point checklist grouped into seven areas: arrival and first impressions, rooms, housekeeping, food and drink, service, spa and wellness, and value. We time the airport transfer, the check-in queue and the breakfast coffee refill. We inspect the mattress and the blackout, run the shower until the hot water falters, order the same three room-service dishes at every property, and ask the concierge one impossible question. The checklist keeps a resort in Palawan and a grand dame in Zurich honest on the same terms.
How we visit
We book like ordinary guests and stay at least one night, usually two. Where practical we book anonymously and reveal ourselves only after check-out. Reviews are written from notes and photographs taken during the stay, then checked against the hotel’s current rates, menus and opening hours before publication.
Who pays
Our default is to pay our own way. Where a stay is hosted by the hotel, a disclosure appears at the top of the review and the inspection is identical. Hosted or paid, the hotel has no say in the text, no preview of the score, and no route of appeal beyond correcting a factual error.
The score
The result is a single editorial rating out of ten, to one decimal place.
- 9.0 and above: world class. Book it before your dates disappear.
- 8.0 to 8.9: excellent, with reservations we spell out.
- 7.0 to 7.9: good, and worth it at the right rate.
- Below 7.0: we tell you exactly what went wrong, and what we would book instead.
The score is the reviewer’s own, moderated by the editors for consistency across the collection. It is never an average of guest reviews and never influenced by whether a hotel advertises, hosts or partners with us.
Affiliate links
Some booking links earn us a commission at no cost to you. Affiliate relationships are disclosed on every page where they appear and have no bearing on scores or coverage. We link to the booking route we would use ourselves, which is frequently not the one that pays us most.
Corrections and revisits
Hotels change. We revisit scored properties on a rolling basis, note the revisit date on updated reviews, and correct factual errors quickly and visibly. If we got something wrong, email corrections@luxuryhotelreviews.com.