Europe's Best Hotel?
 

A Travel & Leisure poll of 23,000 readers says that Europe's best hotel, as rated by the readers, is the Inverlochy Castle in Fort William, Scotland.
favorite T & L city? Florence, with Rome 2nd, Bangkok 3rd, Sidney 4th and Chiang Mai, Thailand 5th. Beirut cracked the list for the first time at 9th, but this was before the current conflaguration there.

Thanks PalQ - so sad about #9.
Amazing Florence is #1 in the world.

I'm also amazed that Florence is #1 in the world.

I'd be interested in knowing how the question was phrased...any sociologist will tell you that the way a question is asked often determined the answer.

www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest.

It's obviously a simple popularity contest and biased in favor of the people who read T+L since they are the ones who were asked to respond.

Favorite T+L city doesn't necessarily equate to "#1 in the world."

Yes. T & L distributes questionaires to their subscribers so the votes do come from these people only in regards to those ranked destinations. Apparently the majority of them have unlimited hotel budgets as well.

It doesn;t mean they have unlimited hotel budgets - it often means (as with me) that their employers or clients have unlimited hotel budgets.

And, generally, budget travelers are not the people T&L is aimed at - so I'm not surprised.

I've quit answering those types of polls. A couple of my favorite hotels have skyrocketed in price since everyone enthusiastically recommended them. Example: Seattle's Inn at the Market used to be a cute little unknown boutique hotel with a good winter rate. Now it often shows up on top ten lists of the US.

Not having a corporate travel pimp to buy my hotels for me, I went on-line before the trip. In Paris, even the taxi drivers had trouble finding the place (Rue de Bercy) and it was hot and stuffy and the sign in the midget elevator read" THIS LIFT DONT STOP ON THE FIRST FLOOR"... I did get welcomed that nite while gasping for air at the window on the 6th floor. A
Parisian across the way was standing nude, having a smoke on his balcony. He waved, did a model-turn-around and bow as he waved and sauntered back into his apartment. Anyway, we didn't expect much when we got to Amsterdam, but as my 12 year old put it upon entering the room..." Holy Crap!" It was a 5 star hotel we got for 400.00 dollars,US less than their cheapest room...big, down duvets, robes,slippers, wetbar, room service and 2 lovely apples on a plate at turndown. I too bragged about the Inn at the Market and can't afford to stay there now because they've priced themselves above the likes of me, but I will share the name of the hotel in Amsterdam. It is the Bilderburg. Near to the Riksmuseum and many other accessable places....it had a gourmet restaurant, wonderful staff and I would go to Amsterdam just to stay there again....of course, by the time I return, they once again, will have risen above we mere peons!

Thanks for clarifying that these survey mavens have travel pimps. No wonder.