Best hotels: every ranking

“Our pick” sits on one hotel per list, the hotel ranked No. 1, and the reasons for its place are written on its card. Every other hotel shows its rank instead, such as No. 2 in Best hotels in London, so the badge never appears twice on a page.

In Best hotels in London the pick is Sofitel London St James, on Waterloo Place in St James's, 300 m from Piccadilly Circus. It comes first for its MICHELIN Key and for Wild Honey St James, the one-star restaurant in the same building, which serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 17:00 to 21:30. Its limits are printed beside its strengths: there is no pool, no sauna appears on any official page, and the gym is for hotel guests only. If a pool decides your stay, The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel and Raffles London at The OWO, second and third in the same list, both publish an indoor one.

Start with the comparison table and its filters. In Best hotels in London it sets the 21 hotels side by side by neighbourhood, Accor segment, rooms, spa, pool and nearest station, and one click keeps only the hotels with a spa, with a pool, or in one segment from Luxury to Economy. The pool filter keeps six hotels; at Sofitel London Heathrow the pool is a thermal vitality pool inside the spa, with no lap pool listed.

Then read the card of each hotel left on your shortlist. Each card gives the reason for its place, the published opening hours that decide a booking and the limits, such as Restaurant 1890 at The Savoy closing on Sunday and Monday, or rooms at TRIBE London Canary Wharf taking two guests at most. Minutes on foot are the times each hotel publishes. A distance marked in a straight line is measured from the hotel on a map and is shorter than the walk.

Match the hotel to the reason for the trip before you look at the rank. For a first visit built around theatres and walks, the West End addresses are Sofitel London St James, 300 m from Piccadilly Circus; The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel, four minutes on foot from Charing Cross; St Martins Lane London, two minutes from Leicester Square; and Sanderson London, three minutes from Oxford Circus. For a Eurostar train, Pullman London St Pancras is 200 m from King's Cross St Pancras. For an early flight from Terminal 5, Sofitel London Heathrow is joined to the terminal by a covered walkway of about 160 m.

For a week with children, the two Adagio aparthotels give every studio and apartment its own kitchen, and Aparthotel Adagio London City East has a four-bedroom apartment of 117 m² for eight. For a short stay in Accor's Economy segment, the three ibis hotels stand 100 m from Aldgate East, 140 m from Southwark and on the Hotel Hoppa bus route to Heathrow.