The hotels below are among the most expensive in their cities, a collection of places around the world known for robust food and hospitality scenes. But this page is not just about eye-popping penthouse suites and butler service. The hotels here command nightly rates well into the thousands, and at this level, the infinity pools and MICHELIN-Starred restaurants practically come standard. What’s more interesting is just how differently luxury manifests from place to place.
In New York, the most expensive hotels are where celebrities hide away in a fantasy version of Old New York. In Madrid, they’re the palaces once exclusive to nobility. And in Tokyo, top dollar buys you either a room in a sleek, hyper-modern skyscraper or a historic, distinctly Japanese mansion.
The prices below are approximate, based on mid-week rates in peak season. Visit in the off-season for excellent deals. But even if you never stay the night, the hotels below are home to some of their city's best restaurants, bars and lounges — places that define a city’s highest aspirations, where history has unfolded and watershed moments have played out for centuries.
And yes, they also have some truly outlandish amenities. That said, this list kicks off in Dubai.
DUBAI
In Dubai, an idea of what the luxury hotel market may look like in the year 3000. By then, perhaps every hotel will be hosted in giant glass, H-shaped buildings like the One&Only One Za’abeel (from $800/night) or in shining, sailboat-like buildings on the water like the Burj Al Arab (from $1900/night).
Besides the outlandish architecture, both exemplify another feature of Dubai’s top of the top hotels: outrageous suites. At the One & Only, the penthouse comes with a private cinema and private infinity lap pool (from $20,000/night). At the Burj Al Arab, expect multiple rotating beds, amenities like hair driers and lamp shades made of actual gold, and bathrooms with full-size Jacuzzis in the presidential duplex suite (from $40,000/night).
Expect cutting-edge design and almost-unlimited amenities at every hotel at this level in Dubai.
NEW YORK CITY
Here’s what to expect at New York City’s most expensive hotels: celebrities. Yes, you’ll find the well‑heeled, the rich and the famous at any hotel on this list, anywhere in the world. But a hotel like the Lowell (from $1,400/night), recently host to Michelle Obama, and the Carlyle (from $1,400/night) aren’t the shiny objects grubbed at by just any a‑lister. These are the quiet, apartment‑like residences where guests pay primarily for the elegance and discretion of what feels like Old New York in the most romantic vision of the word.
Granted, there are plenty of flashier haunts in our Complete Guide to New York City at this price level. Shall we list them? Here are two: the Mark (from $1,000/night) — unofficial second venue of the MET Gala — and the Robert De Niro‑owned Greenwich Hotel (from $1,200/night).
MADRID
Many of the best luxury hotels in Madrid were once actual palaces. Splurge here and you’re in for design details like the Italian marble fireplaces and Persian rugs of the French-style neoclassical residence once home to a duke, at Santo Mauro hotel, or the expansive, refurbished gardens at Rosewood Villa Magna (both from $1,000/night), a tribute to the original aristocratic residence that stood here — and recreated with the same flora that once thrived on its grounds.
And while the gold and silver leaves that drip down from the lobby ceiling at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz (from $1,200/night) feel regal, even though this particular Belle Époque landmark was purpose built as a luxury hotel in 1910, that may be because the hotel was built with the explicit encouragement of King Alfonso XIII. The highest end of the hotel scene in Madrid, then, is all about history: places to sip a cocktail in residences once frequented by counts and countesses.
PARIS
What do you get at the most expensive hotels in Paris? Largely, a palace. But these are not the historic palaces of Madrid — at least, not by definition. France, nearly alone among nations, grants an official, government‑backed title for hotels they judge the very best.
To gain the formal, prestigious designation of “palace” from the French Ministry of Tourism, hotels must first meet basic criteria like the inclusion of a spa, a multilingual staff and concierge service onsite. 12 of the 31 palace hotels in France are in Paris, and they represent some of the highest in luxury in the country.
At Cheval Blanc Paris (from $2,600/night), set in the remade Art Deco department store La Samaritaine, the 7,000‑square‑foot Quintessence Suite has its own swimming pool (from $55,000/night). At The Peninsula Paris (from $1,700/night), a fleet of stylish sedans includes a 1934 Rolls‑Royce Phantom II to whisk guests to the opera or a VIP tour of Versailles.
LONDON
No city in the world does formal luxury quite like London. And no neighborhood in London does it quite like Mayfair. Here, you'll find the kind of world-class service deployed by a place like Brown’s Hotel (from $900/night), where doormen in top hats have been escorting guests inside the hotel’s Georgian townhouses since 1837.
The Ritz, Claridge’s and the Connaught (all from $1,000/night) have more than a century to their names as well, each a Mayfair icon at the highest end of posh London. At Claridge’s, members of the royal family waited out World War II. At the Three MICHELIN Key Connaught, a Three MICHELIN Star restaurant awaits guests as well, a fitting meal to caper a day of butler service and treatments at the Aman Spa.
TOKYO
The luxury hotel scene in Tokyo is one of the more difficult to fit in a single box. That's not just because these hotels are physically massive. The spare-no-expense skyscrapers typical of many an Asian metropolis — like the Bvlgari Hotel (from $2,000/night) and its 400‑square‑meter signature Bvlgari Suite (from $30,000/night) filled with gold lamps and unspeakable views, or JANU Tokyo (from $1,500/night), its massive suites offering private balconies for guests who can pull themselves away from the 4,000‑square‑meter wellness complex — are undoubtedly here.
But here too are spots like the Palace Hotel (from $1,000/night) and the Trunk (from $1,200/night), more uniquely Japanese hotels with an aesthetic that resembles an ultra‑luxurious private residence in a privileged corner of the city rather than a giant tower of sleek and divine perks.
BANGKOK
The most distinctive splurge in Bangkok is the Mandarin Oriental (from $1,000/night). Here it’s not just the kings and queens who formed the guest list of this late 19th‑century hotel — it is where Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward and so many famous British writers stayed at the peak of the colonial era in Southeast Asia.
Paired with such illustrious history and sumptuous nods to the past is the cutting‑edge luxury defined by the Mandarin Oriental brand, and which justifies its inclusion at the very top of so many hotel scenes around the world — things like Star dining, an award‑winning spa and an endless list of amenities.
Many of Bangkok’s hotels in or around this price range have another excellent perk: outdoor space and private gardens.
CHICAGO
In Chicago, as with many of the world’s “second” cities, you can find some of the most world-renowned brands, operating at their typical standards of excellence, at prices significantly more reasonable than their counterparts in places like Paris, London or New York.
At the Pendry (from $500/night), a sleek and dignified style appears behind the architectural‑masterwork facade that is the 1929 Art Deco Carbide & Carbon Building. The Langham (from $600/night), similarly, puts its excellent spa, lounge and state‑of‑the‑art rooms within an architectural masterpiece — this one by modernist icon Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
HONG KONG
It makes sense that in Hong Kong, the massive, high-end luxury hotels reign supreme at the top of the market. The Peninsula (from $500/night) makes several appearances on this list, after all, and the brand's illustrious story began here in Hong Kong — long considered one of the best city hotels in the world, with its massive, gilded lobby and staffers so attentive you can forget that in the real world you’re actually expected to fend for yourself.
The Peninsula Suite (from $18,000/night) has its own grand piano, private gym and gallery‑level artworks to go with one in a million panoramic views. There is a Four Seasons and Rosewood (both from $800/night) here as well, but an underrated boutique luxury scene, too. The Upper House (from $400/night) is a skyscraper with just over a hundred rooms and design by the renowned Andre Fu, who, for that matter, did the design on K11 Artus (from $600/night) as well — a residential‑style hotel with the same kind of amenities (personal shoppers, limo service, infinity pool) you might expect from the highest‑luxury outfits.
Hero image: Peak maximalism in the lobby of the soaring Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in Dubai
