Forbes Travel Guide, Formerly Mobil Travel Guide, Announces its 53rd Annual Four- and Five-Star Winners Among Hotels, Restaurants and Spas

NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The list of Four-Star and Five-Star award winners for the 2011 Forbes Travel Guide was unveiled today, with two hotels, two restaurants, and two spas winning a coveted fifth star. The list has defined the industry's highest standards of excellence in hospitality for more than 50 years. Among restaurants, both of the new Five-Star winners, Daniel and Eleven Madison Park, are located in New York City. The two new Five-Star Hotels include Island Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong, and Falling Rock at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, in Farmington, Pennsylvania. The two new Five-Star spas are The Spa at The Grand Del Mar, in San Diego, and The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, in Las Vegas.

The complete list of Forbes Travel Guide Star award winners are available along with updated comprehensive reviews written by Forbes Travel Guide's experts at www.forbestravelguide.com.  

"We are delighted to announce this year's Four- and Five-Star winners, demonstrating the rich diversity among outstanding experiences that define the best of the best hotels, restaurants and spas worldwide," said Shane O'Flaherty, President and CEO of Forbes Travel Guide.  "As in years past, the 2011 Five-Star properties share an uncompromising commitment to the highest standards of guest service, luxurious accommodation and unique, memorable experiences; as the Forbes Travel Guide brand grows worldwide, we are pleased to include a geographically broader, yet ever more selective, group of properties to the list."  

Forbes Travel Guide's ratings, the most comprehensive in the industry, are based on objective evaluations of more than 500 attributes. This year's additions bring the total number of Forbes Five-Star hotels to 54. Among the 54 Five-Star hotels, six are in New York City, the most of any city in the U.S. There are five Five-Star hotels in Hong Kong, and two in Macau, where ratings were established for the first time in 2009. Forbes Travel Guide expects to further expand its rating system to include properties in additional international destinations in 2011.

Two new restaurants have been added to the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star restaurant list for 2011, bringing the total number of Forbes Five-Star restaurants in the United States and Canada to 23. Forbes Travel Guide's Star announcement also features an expansion of the Five Star spa list, increasing the number of Award winners to 20 luxurious spas around the globe.

The complete list of Four- and Five-Star winners is included below.

For a detailed explanation of how Forbes Travel Guide compiles its Star ratings, visit www.forbestravelguide.com. Follow Forbes Travel Guide on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ForbesInspector

ABOUT FORBES TRAVEL GUIDE

Forbes Travel Guide, formerly Mobil Travel Guide, originator of the prestigious Mobil Star ratings and certifications, has provided the most comprehensive ratings and reviews of hotels, restaurants and spas since 1958. In October 2009, Mobil Travel Guide announced a strategic partnership with Forbes Media LLC. This exclusive licensing agreement between two industry leaders with more than 140 years of combined experience transfers the hospitality industry's premier star rating and travel guide brand from ExxonMobil to Forbes. Forbes Travel Guide has a team of expert inspectors who anonymously evaluate properties against rigorous and objective proprietary standards, providing consumers the insight to make better-informed travel and leisure decisions.

ABOUT FORBES MEDIA LLC

Forbes Media encompasses Forbes and Forbes.com, the #1 business site on the Web that reaches on average more than 17 million people monthly. The company publishes Forbes and Forbes Asia, which together reach a worldwide audience of more than 6 million readers. It also publishes ForbesLife and ForbesWoman magazines, in addition to licensee editions in China, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Latvia, the Middle East, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Other Forbes Media Web sites are: RealClearPolitics.com; RealClearMarkets.com; RealClearSports.com; and the Forbes.com Business and Finance Blog Network. Together with Forbes.com, these sites reach on average nearly 40 million business decision makers each month.

SOURCE Forbes Travel Guide