The list, called Top 1,000 World’s Best Hotels, is by French company La Liste.

Its rankings are not a result of a judging panel that conducts in-person visits, but rather a compilation of customer ratings on booking websites, published reviews from travel magazines, global and local media coverage, as well as other travel guides.

It’s a similar format and methodology used by the company to produce the namesake global restaurants list for which it’s best known.

Helene Pietrini, managing director of La Liste, says she saw a gap in the market for a resource that pulls together various reviews into one place that travellers can scroll through to get their imagination going.

“People love to be inspired with hotels ranked from the best to – not the worst, but all the great hotels in the world,” she says. “They want to see a longer list of great places to go to, not always the most expensive.”

Sustainability and uniqueness are more important to some consumers than luxury, she adds, which is in part why some specific hotels are pulled out and highlighted.

La Liste joins a crowded field of rankings and guides for travellers – though few have tackled hotels specifically.

The publications usually make money through sponsorships with culinary or beverage brands, credit card and travel-related companies.

La Liste doesn’t yet have any government sponsors, but it’s not opposed to the idea, Pietrini says.

La Liste’s selection is heavily skewed towards luxury hotels, with at least 80 properties under the Four Seasons brand showing up in the top 1,600. The country with the most hotels on the list is the United States, followed by Italy, France and Britain.

The Peninsula Shanghai was the top East Asian hotel on the list, another example of city hotels edging out resorts that are destinations unto themselves. In the future, the company might add more affordable hotels or guest homes to an extended list, Pietrini says.

Alongside the list is a set of special honours decided upon by La Liste staff members, who aren’t required to visit the properties but use their own judgment to spot trends, cross-reference sources and chat with their contacts in the industry.

New arrivals awards for those opened this year went to Atlantis the Royal, in Dubai, the Peninsula, in Istanbul, Capella, in Sydney, among others.

On the best hotels list, the scoring system resulted in many ties, with 20 hotels sharing the No 5 spot. They include the Bulgari Hotel in Dubai, the Rosewood in London, the Baccarat Hotel in New York and the Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mexico – all with 98 out of 100 points.

“It is quite true that hotels are less polarising than restaurants,” Pietrini says. “We had that comment internally that scores were very, very close to each other in the hotel database, a bit more than in the restaurants one.”

But one hotel stood out as the sole No 1, she says, repeatedly coming out on top as the company was testing and tweaking the algorithm: Hotel Cipriani. It narrowly beat out the hotels tied for No 2, with a score of 99.75 edging out the others, at 99.5.

Pietrini visited the hotel to have a look for herself.

“I totally understand why it is unanimously positively reviewed by all the sources,” she says. “It’s a legendary, iconic hotel. You can really feel the history in each detail of the property. It’s a hotel with a story.”

Here’s a look at the best hotels in every continent, according to La Liste:

Africa: Royal Mansour Marrakech, in Morocco, and One&Only Le Saint Géran in Mauritius (tied)

Asia: The Peninsula in Shanghai and the Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, India (tied)

Europe: Belmond Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Italy

North America: The Peninsula in Chicago and the Waldorf Astoria in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (tied)

Oceania: The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort in French Polynesia and Matakauri Lodge, in New Zealand (tied)

South America: Hotel das Cataratas in Iguassu Falls, Brazil