The 12 best luxury hotel brands in the world that every traveler should experience

Four Seasons

Exterior shot of Four Seasons Resort and Residences Anguilla.

• LTI - Luxury Travel Intelligence - recently released its latest ranking of the world's best luxury hotel brands.
• LTI's extensive algorithm is based on 123 criteria. The company analyzed luxury hotel brands with 10 or more properties worldwide to find the 12 best.
• The top spots included well-known names like Belmond, Four Seasons, and Mandarin Oriental.
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While luxury travel destinations that look flawless on your Instagram feed can be underwhelming (or downright disappointing), some companies do successfully give wealthy travelers the high-end experience they're hoping for when they book a trip.

To that end, LTI - Luxury Travel Intelligence (a members-only digital resource for all things luxury travel) recently released its annual ranking of the top luxury hotel brands in the world. Turns out, the consensus on which chains are the best of the best has shifted drastically since the company's last list was released.

Read more: I toured a $975-a-night luxury resort in Jackson Hole, and I found that it delivers on 2 of the top desires of wealthy travelers: privacy and experience

LTI's ranking (which focused only on brands with 10 or more properties) is based on 123 "touch points" across a multitude of areas, co-founder Michael Crompton told Business Insider.

The team of 12 researchers scored each brand on factors including staff and training, commitment to service levels, upkeep, refurbishment and new builds, marketing, the reservation processes, food and beverage standards, spa operations, and the quality of management and accessibility, among many others. The assessment process took place over the course of 12 months.

Here are the world's best luxury hotel brands, ranked in ascending order.