I got an email saying their best of Hotels list was out. It use to be a great list and they use to publish the scoring. Now its somewhat vague and I suspect hinges on marketing. The 30 hotels of the best of Europe are well divided regionally with I doubt is the case. As nice as the hotel in Lisbon is I suspect there are 6 as nice or nicer hotels in London or Paris.... but they felt they needed to put Lisbon on the list.
Then there is accuracy in portrayal. Sure, I was happy to see the Budapest 4 Seasons on the list (makes it most years) but there are as good or maybe better in town these days. And their description was downright wrong.
Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace – Budapest
This is Budapest’s grandest hotel, a 1906 marvel of Secessionism
(Central Europe’s take on Art Nouveau) that’s undergone an exceptional
renovation: chandeliers and stained glass repaired and cleaned, mosaic
tiles scrubbed, white stucco repainted.
Sure renovated 10 years ago and now one of maybe 3 equivalent hotels. Old outdated text.
Its location couldn’t be better, on the riverfront, in the heart of
buzzing Pest, looking across the Danube to hilly Buda and the medieval
Old Town, and right by the famous Chain Bridge.
Aesthetically a location hard to beat. For tourism convenience, ehhhhhhhh..... not really in the heart of Pest.
Concierge Peter Buday and his team fizz with advice and information –
about where to find the best bars, and other discoveries – though the
area around the hotel is seething with interest: see opulent Gundel,
the famous café and restaurant that opened in 1910; the smart shops of
Andrassy Avenue, a broad boulevard modelled on the Champs-Élysées; the
Franz Litzst museum; and the glorious Hungarian State opera house.
From around £370. Adriaane Pielou
In the area around the hotel? Some of that is a 15 to 20 minute walk.
Based on this one review, I would be reluctant to believe anything they print in the Best of List.