Forbes release top hotel picks for 2014

In the 56th edition of the Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings list, inspectors bestowed new stars to properties like the Four Seasons Hotel Macao and The Pierre, A Taj Hotel in New York, expanding the five-star group to 97 hotels.

The Four Seasons luxury hotel chain emerged as the leading hotel brand, boasting the most five-starred properties with 18 hotels across 11 destinations making the cut and tripling its number of winners over the last decade.

New to the club this year is the brand’s flagship hotel The Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, the first in Canada to own bragging rights to holding a five-star status with Forbes and five stars with AAA.

Recently, the luxury hotel received a star boost when it recruited chef Daniel Boulud to open an outpost of his restaurant empire within the property.

The Forbes guide includes 97 five-starred hotels, 48 restaurants and 41 spas. In the 4-star category, it lists 296 hotels, 186 restaurants and 149 spas.

Meanwhile, in TripAdvisor’s ranking of top hotels in the world, Italy boasted the largest number of top-rated hotels.