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CN Traveler Readers Choice Awards

CN Traveler Readers Choice Awards

Old Oct 8, 2019, 9:39 pm
  #1  
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CN Traveler Readers Choice Awards

Tis the season, folks. The Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards are out for 2019... and the lists are beyond terrible.

For context:

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/t...s-in-the-world

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/b...s-in-the-world

Even after reading through their simplistic methodology (600,000 votes cast, the most popular win), I can't understand how on earth the lists produced reflect the "Best Hotels in the World" or "Best Resorts in the World".

If you skim the lists, you will see a notable absence of any Aman, Four Seasons (apart from FS Surfside), St. Regis, One&Only, Belmond, Peninsula, or Singita property. You know, the brands famous for providing the most luxurious experiences and being the top of the industry. It seems there is no weight given whatsoever to travellers who actually travel frequently and stay at enough hotels and resorts to be able to contribute to rankings. How someone like Lyn Middlehurst ranks hotels is far more valuable than the ballot submitted by someone who takes one vacation every 3 years to a popular resort in the Caribbean.

Anyone who has been can agree that Laucala Island is one of the best resorts in the world. Same with The Brando or North Island. None of those are on the list. Instead, the 282-room Ayana Resort and Spa in Bali aka Instagram paradise makes the list. You definitely won't find The Upper House or Amanoi or Clayoquot or Singita Boulders or FS George V on the list. Oh, but Intercontinenal Da Nang is supposedly the fifth best resort in the world.

RCA rankings have no impact on my travel choices, but they likely influence a large part of the CN Traveler reader base. What is your take?
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Old Oct 8, 2019, 10:53 pm
  #2  
 
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Bleh.

All garbage.
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Old Oct 8, 2019, 11:02 pm
  #3  
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So what? Let the people who believe those rankings go to those "highly ranked" hotels. I'd prefer that these folks stay away from the properties where I'd like to stay anyway.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 1:11 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
So what? Let the people who believe those rankings go to those "highly ranked" hotels. I'd prefer that these folks stay away from the properties where I'd like to stay anyway.
Hit the nail on the head. It almost seems irresponsible to release lists like these. The casual traveler won't know the difference, but the list that they produced for "Best Resort in the World" is categorically not what it claims to be. The benefit may be that less seasoned travelers will head to the "Best in the World" and the intimate, truly special properties can maintain their "hideway" qualities.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 3:16 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by MicSanToro

RCA rankings have no impact on my travel choices, but they likely influence a large part of the CN Traveler reader base. What is your take?
As a hotel owner whose property is ranked in the Top 30 of Italy I do certainly appreciate the publicity effect this will bring. It’s serves as recognition for the team and is a good opener for sales presentations. Oddly, we have never been contacted by CN Traveler for pictures or property information.

As an Amanjunkie on the other hand, I find the absence of Aman properties very odd. But it seems that every single Rosewood property has made it onto the lists. And some other winners are just weird, places I wouldn’t even stay for free.

So while the RCA won’t impact my travel choices, I‘m glad everyone is talking about them
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 4:15 am
  #6  
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Lol @ Ayana
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 8:28 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by sydakllon
Lol @ Ayana
While CN Traveller (UK) still has some half-decent content (and thoughtful travel guides), I do think that CN Traveler (US) has become Condé Nast "How-to-get-the-best-Instagram-photos-on-your-exotic-vacation-at-a-seemingly-fancy-but-not-actually-luxurious-resort" Traveler. Ayana upholds that point.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 9:48 am
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This list ... Ugh. On a related note, my fiancee and I (thanks to forum regulars for the Sicily recommendations, BTW) had a huge chuckle over Nos. 43 and 44 on Travel & Leisure's World's Best 100 Hotel's list this year -- the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio and The Row in ... an outlet mall in Somerville, Massachusetts. Very puzzling indeed. We wandered over to Villa Serbelloni when we were staying at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo last fall to have a couple of drinks and try to escape the madness of Bellagio. It felt chintzy, the service was perfunctory at best, and it was overrun by people who were there for the sake of their Instagram feeds -- how's it the top resort in Italy? And No. 44? It's a run-of-the-mill Autograph Collection property. In an outlet mall. In Somerville, Massachusetts. I can think of about six hotels in Greater Boston I'd recommend over it at the same price point.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 11:50 am
  #9  
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SLS and Casa Del Mar were named as the two best in Los Angeles.
Big LOL
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 1:43 pm
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Perhaps their readers have a different definition of "best" than "the brands famous for providing the most luxurious experiences and being the top of the industry".

Is the actual question "best" or is it something else?
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 5:07 pm
  #11  
DSI
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Originally Posted by MicSanToro
Tis the season, folks. The Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards are out for 2019... and the lists are beyond terrible.

For context:

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/t...s-in-the-world

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/b...s-in-the-world

Even after reading through their simplistic methodology (600,000 votes cast, the most popular win), I can't understand how on earth the lists produced reflect the "Best Hotels in the World" or "Best Resorts in the World".

If you skim the lists, you will see a notable absence of any Aman, Four Seasons (apart from FS Surfside), St. Regis, One&Only, Belmond, Peninsula, or Singita property. You know, the brands famous for providing the most luxurious experiences and being the top of the industry. It seems there is no weight given whatsoever to travellers who actually travel frequently and stay at enough hotels and resorts to be able to contribute to rankings. How someone like Lyn Middlehurst ranks hotels is far more valuable than the ballot submitted by someone who takes one vacation every 3 years to a popular resort in the Caribbean.

Anyone who has been can agree that Laucala Island is one of the best resorts in the world. Same with The Brando or North Island. None of those are on the list. Instead, the 282-room Ayana Resort and Spa in Bali aka Instagram paradise makes the list. You definitely won't find The Upper House or Amanoi or Clayoquot or Singita Boulders or FS George V on the list. Oh, but Intercontinenal Da Nang is supposedly the fifth best resort in the world.

RCA rankings have no impact on my travel choices, but they likely influence a large part of the CN Traveler reader base. What is your take?
how does expierence play into it? For example, we live next to the inn and club—it’s a bit old—but I entirely like the area more than, say, amanyara.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 10:13 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by DSI
how does expierence play into it?
If you are a CN Traveler reader who takes a vacation every two years and you choose to go to a resort in the Caribbean (for this example, let's pick a Sandals!), you will likely think it is the best thing ever and proceed to go give it a perfect rating for the Readers Choice Awards. You don't have much but your last vacation two years ago to compare it to. If you are someone who travels frequently, staying at the worlds top resorts, you have a broader view of what constitutes a spectacular resort. Let's say you, the more experienced traveler, have stayed at the same Sandals as the first person but have also vacationed to Laucala Island and The Brando. Now, the latter two resorts will set your upper bar and you'll view Sandals as a mediocre/packaged luxury resort.

If you aren't an experienced traveler, you will be wowed by far more and proceed to rate everything 4 or 5 stars. If you are experienced, you have enough of a data set to accurately rate hotels/resorts/restaurants etc.
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 10:32 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by livefromtuscany
As a hotel owner whose property is ranked in the Top 30 of Italy I do certainly appreciate the publicity effect this will bring. It’s serves as recognition for the team and is a good opener for sales presentations.
I think your hotel would be perfect for us, if not everyone's ideal on this particular forum. But what do you think is setting your establishment apart for the purposes of CN's rankings this year?
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 10:47 pm
  #14  
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I think luxury is completely subjective. This forum probably sits quite along the spectrum in terms of expectation. I know a lot of people who are simply satisfied with amazing hard product and don't 'get' the service aspect (or sometimes don't really even have a need for it).
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Old Oct 9, 2019, 11:09 pm
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Originally Posted by MicSanToro
If you are a CN Traveler reader who takes a vacation every two years and you choose to go to a resort in the Caribbean (for this example, let's pick a Sandals!), you will likely think it is the best thing ever and proceed to go give it a perfect rating for the Readers Choice Awards.

If you aren't an experienced traveler, you will be wowed by far more and proceed to rate everything 4 or 5 stars. If you are experienced, you have enough of a data set to accurately rate hotels/resorts/restaurants etc.
I'm a subscriber to CN Traveler -- and not a very experienced traveler. And for the most part, I do tend go to the Caribbean. But when I took the Readers' Choice poll, it seemed pretty flawed to me because it didn't appear to have any modeling that would compensate for the biases I have. And it didn't really give me a choice to evaluate any of the islands I go to or ask me about any of the hotels where I tend to stay.

I mean, LIAT has made some fairly significant strides to improve its general performance in the past couple of years -- rising from Panic-Attack-Inducing on my personal scale all the way up to Completely Abysmal. But I never get a chance to vote for it against JetBlue, a codeshare partner that wins All of the Awards but regularly leaves us sitting around waiting for flights to Logan from DCA or RIC whenever there's a drop of rain on the ground on the Eastern Seaboard while Delta reroutes everyone.

Last edited by Drew4au78; Oct 9, 2019 at 11:27 pm
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