There are differences in 5-star rankings and ratings worldwide. As this site is about London, it made sense to me to start with the most recognised 5-star rating system in the UK, which is from the AA and Visit Britain.

However, hotels must pay an annual fee and host an overnight visit to receive a rating from the AA and Visit Britain so it doesn’t mean that this is an exhaustive list.

According to The AA, the definition of a five star hotel is as follows: Luxurious accommodation and public areas. A range of extra facilities and a multilingual service available. Guests are greeted at the hotel entrance. High quality menu and wine list.

But what is luxurious and isn’t?

On Booking.com properties self select their rating when they sign up. And there are a variety of different ways of defining 5 stars in different countries. Several European countries have signed up to the Hotel Stars scheme and in the US there is a diamonds system awarded by the American Automobile Association.

In conclusion, there is no such thing as a completely arbitrary list of 5-star hotels in London. So I started with the AA/Visit Britain list and have then added in other hotels I consider to be 5 star (my own completely biased opinion!).

The AA only has 52 hotels with a 5 star rating in London. This is great for the most quintessential 5 star hotel neighborhoods of Mayfair and Belgravia but there are none in some of the more up and coming areas like Shoreditch, Kings Cross etc. I have look at other top hotel rating sites to see the best hotels in some of these neighborhoods. So some of these hotels won’t be perfect 5 star but they won’t be below 4 star and it will just be the best in the area.

Using this approach and trying to cover all key neighborhoods got me to 68 five star hotels in London.