NEW YORK — Four Vietnamese hotels won coveted spots in this year’s Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, with the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi and Park Hyatt Saigon placing in the top three on a list of the ‘Top Hotels in Southern Asia.’
La Residence Hue Hotel & Spa – MGallery by Sofitel placed No. 15 on the same list in its third appearance, besting the likes of big-name hotels like the Fullerton Bay and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and coming within just a few beats of the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok. Villa Song made its first appearance on the list.
Announced in New York on Oct. 18, Condé Nast Traveler’s 29th annual compendium came together after a dramatic restructuring of the voting process. Though still reader-driven, Condé Nast took charge of its own survey this year after outsourcing the tabulation to an independent research firm in years past.
Between April 1 and July 1, more than 300,000 readers voted in this year’s competition, up from 128,000 last year. Another significant change is with the voting demographic. Last year, the median age of the Readers’ Choice Awards voter was in his late 60s. This year, she’s in her late 40s.
The structural changes were especially heartening at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, which was the only hotel to place among the top three hotels last year and this year.
“That kind of durability, no matter who is voting, tells me that the hotel enjoys universal appeal among people in their 40s, 50s and 60s,” said Franck Lafourcade, general manager of the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. “Likewise, our standing among travelers is solid, whether we’re sampling the opinions of 128,000 or 300,000.”
Though La Residence won a No. 13 spot last year, the hotel was not competing against hotels from Singapore and Bangkok on last year’s list. This year it was.
“That readers who’ve experienced some of Bangkok and Singapore’s finest hotels hold us in as high or higher esteem is a thrilling development,” said Phan Trong Minh, general manager of La Residence.
The Readers’ Choice Awards and Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards are widely considered to be the two most important awards lists for hotels worldwide.
