Spotlight on the world’s best hotels and resorts: 2025 Luxury Travel Gold List Awards

From boutique lodges to global icons, these categories celebrate the best in luxury hotel stays worldwide

With entries open for the 2025 Luxury Travel Gold List Awards, we’re spotlighting this year’s accommodation-focused categories, which reflect the evolving expectations of high-end travellers: personalised service, bold design, meaningful sustainability, and a deeper connection to place. Whether it’s a heritage property in the South Pacific, a design-led newcomer in the Alps, or a wellness sanctuary in Southeast Asia, these awards recognise the hotels and resorts that go beyond five stars to leave a lasting impression.

Here’s a look at the hotel and resort categories for 2025:

Boutique Hotel, Resort or Lodge (1–60 Rooms)

Small scale, big impact. This category recognises intimate properties offering a deeply personal guest experience, often defined by distinctive design, thoughtful detail, and a strong sense of place – all within a footprint of 50 rooms or fewer.

Luxury Hotel (61+ Rooms)

Celebrating hotels and resorts with more than 50 rooms that consistently deliver across all touchpoints: dining, spa, service, design and experience. These are properties that balance scale with soul, and seem to do so effortlessly.

Luxury Hotel or Resort – ANZ & South Pacific

Open to properties of any size in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, this category honours leaders in hospitality, innovation, sustainability, and immersive local experiences.

Luxury Hotel Brand

For hotel and resort groups operating across multiple countries, this award recognises brands that maintain exceptional standards of luxury, service and guest satisfaction across every location regardless of size, geography or style.

New Hotel or Resort Design

This design-focused category celebrates hotels and resorts opened (or renovated and reopened) between 1 April 2024 and 31 May 2025 that push creative boundaries. It rewards properties where interior design and architecture shape the story, elevate the guest experience, and set new standards in luxury hospitality.

Sustainable Luxury Resort

This award highlights the increasing importance of responsible luxury. It celebrates resorts that place environmental impact, conservation and community engagement at the core of their operations – all while offering an uncompromising high-end experience.

Wellness Retreat or Resort

Recognising the leaders in transformational travel, this category is for properties that deliver world-class wellness programs and philosophies. It celebrates retreats that go beyond relaxation, offering restoration, insight, and long-term benefit through thoughtfully designed, holistic experiences.

Entries are now open here. Finalists will be revealed on luxurytravelmag.com.au on in September 2025, with winners announced in December 2025. For the full list of categories and information, visit luxurytravelmag.com.au/the-gold-list.