Bangkok hotel tops poll for eighth year

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 7

Bangkok hotel tops poll for eighth year

NZPA-AP New York For the eighth year in succession Bangkok’s Oriental Hotel has been rated the best hotel in the world in a survey conducted by “Institutional Investor” magazine of New York. It was followed by the Regent, of Hong Kong, the Vier Jahreszeiten, of Hamburg, and the Mandarin Oriental, of Hong Kong, which took second, third and fourth place, as they did in 1987. The financial monthly magazine polls about 100 senior bankers from around the world who do a lot of travelling and asks them to rate their favourite hotels on a scale of 1 to 100.

The Connaught, of London, moved up to fifth place from eighth last year, the Shangri La, of Singapore, advanced from ninth to sixth, and the Okura, of Tokyo, moved down from sixth to seventh place. The Ritz, of Paris, was demoted to eighth place from fifth last year, the Bristol, of Paris, unrated in 1987, took ninth place this year, and the Peninsula, Hong Kong, once again held tenth place. The top-ranked Oriental, under a German manager, Kurt Wachtveitl, has a staff of 1000, “Institutional Investor” said. After completing a SUS2O million ($32.6

million) renovation, the “fabled hostelry beside the River of Kings is designing a SUS2 million cultural centre, scheduled to open in 1989, where guests can dabble in medicinal herbs, meditation and local culture,” the magazine said. Other top hotels as listed in the September issue of “Institutional Investor”: 11, Plaza Athenee of Paris; 12, Car-

lyle, New York; 13, Claridge’s, London: 14, Dolder Grand, Zurich; 15, Stanford Court, San Francisco; 16, Baur au Lac, Zurich; 17, Imperial, Tokyo; 18, Hassler Villa Medici, Rome; 19, Atlantic Hotel Kempinski, Hamburg; 20, Berkeley, London; 21, Regent, Sydney; 22, Vier Jahreszeiten, Munich; 23, Pierre, New York; 24, Four Seasons, Washington; 25, Ritz-Carlton, Chicago.