Check-in and check it out

Michelin-starred food, suites steeped in history, rooms that face the future. Here are some of the world's best hotels of 2023

- VIR SANGHVI

All of us look for different things when we stay in hotels. If you are like me, a comfort factor is an advantage hard to explain. For instance, though I must have stayed in most of London's great hotels, these days I always book myself into the Taj-run 51 Buckingham Gate. It is where I feel the most comfortable, because of the excellence of the service; the Tajness of the hotel.

In Mumbai, the ITC Maratha cannot call itself the best in a city that also has the grand, original Taj and the elegant Oberoi. But the Maratha is a hotel with such warm and efficient service that I always feel at home.

Bear this in mind when you read this list of best hotels I stayed in, in 2023. (To keep the numbers down, I have eliminated all Indian hotels so this is a list of hotels around the world.)

The Four Seasons, Florence.

This one appears on most lists of best hotels. It is stunningly beautiful, and consists of two separate buildings and a huge, art-filled private garden in the centre of Florence. One used to be a medieval monastery. The other is a centuries-old palazzo. My room in the palazzo may well be the most stunning bedroom I have ever slept in. The walls were full of original frescos. Service standards are impossibly high too.

Atlantis, The Royal, Dubai.