Readers of Travel + Leisure magazine just named an obscure (from a U.S. perspective) resort in India the 2015 Best Hotel in the World. But if you knew how good India’s homegrown luxury hotel brands were, you would hardly be surprised. The Forbes Travel Guide star rating system does not cover India, but if it did, the nation would be awash in 5-Star hotels and resorts, plus too many 4-stars to count. Unfortunately, just as the ratings skip over Indian hotels, so do many unaware American luxury travelers, who are missing out – and not just in India.
I’m just back from a trip through the country, a country full of surprises – good and bad. Travelers go to India for a lot of reasons, from the cuisine to yoga, wildlife safaris to world famous sights like the Taj Mahal. And of course, lots and lots of travelers go for business, especially in the technology and software industries. I’m very well-traveled, but I encountered a lot of things that were new to me, and my trip had a lot of highlights. But what really blew me away were the hotels. I’ve stayed in top luxury lodgings all over the world, hotels that have been ranked among the best in existence, and my takeaway was that India has a glut of properties that easily hold their own in this elite company.
See more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2015/07/09/worlds-best-luxury-hotel-brands-think-india/