For the fourth consecutive year, Travel + Leisure readers — travellers from across the world — have voted Capella Hotels and Resorts the world’s best hotel brand, a distinction no other brand currently holds, and one that carries particular weight coming from guests across a portfolio of just ten properties including Capella Kyoto as the latest opening in March this year.
The recognition comes alongside individual property wins across Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan, where Patina Osaka — part of sister brand Patina Hotels & Resorts — has been voted both The World’s No. 1 Best Hotel and Best Hotel in Asia.
For Capella, excellence in hospitality and meaningful journeys are inseparable. What draws readers to vote for Capella Hotels and Resorts, year after year, is a consistent and bespoke approach that treats every destination as living culture: building every guest experience around local heritage, traditions, and community.
Named Indonesia’s No. 1 Resort for the third time — in 2020, 2024, and now 2026 — Capella Ubud’s record is built on eight years of being at home in Keliki Village. Families from the village, some across multiple generations, work at the property; 85 young people have graduated from its English for Brighter Future programme; firefly habitats in neighbouring Taro Village have been restored through conservation partnerships. On its eighth anniversary, the property now moves into what it describes as a next chapter — from preservation to cultivation — with experiences that invite guests to plant, harvest, and learn alongside the community.
Opened in 2023 in Sydney’s former Department of Education building — a restoration that took seven years — Capella Sydney holds its position as Australia and New Zealand’s No. 1 City Hotel for the second consecutive year, having first won the title before its third year of operation. The Lands by Capella, set in the former Department of Lands across from Capella Sydney, brings the same patience and care to another heritage site.
The second Patina property and its first urban expression after Patina Maldives, Patina Osaka has been voted both The World’s No. 1 Best Hotel and Best Hotel in Asia and is the first Japanese hotel to receive this recognition in the history of these awards. Patina Osaka’s recognition marks a significant moment for the Patina brand and reflects a growing shift in luxury travel: from consumption to participation, from exclusivity to connection, and from hospitality as service to hospitality as a gateway into the cultural energy of a place.
Roland Fasel, President, Capella Hotel Group, says, “Capella and Patina are brands with distinct identities built on the same belief: that a hotel should genuinely reflect the place it is in and the people who live there. Capella does this through cultural immersion, craft and design rooted in place. Patina does it through creative connection, wellness and a spirit of exploration — bringing guests together with the local creative communities that give each destination its character. Our vision has always been to build brands that are purposeful, and hotels that last.”
