By Sourish Bhattacharyya

THE OBEROI Hotels and Resorts pulled off a worldwide coup by being named both the World’s Best Hotel Brand and having its luxury property, The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan, voted the World’s Best Hotel by the 6.3 million readers of Travel + Leisure magazine, which is circulated exclusively among American Express Platinum Card holders.
The Oberoi Group’s Executive Chairman, P.R.S. Oberoi, in a press release issued earlier in the day, hailed the ’main asset’ of the luxury hotel chain established by his father ’ the people working for it ’ and said: ’We have been able to play a small role in ’Make in India’.’ Truly, The Oberoi Group has shown why it is undeniably a glowing example of the heights of quality the idea of ’Make in India’ can achieve.
The Travel + Leisure Top 100 Hotels list, in fact, reads like a listing of The Oberoi Group. The other group hotels on it are: The Oberoi Rajvilas (Jaipur) at No. 5, Amarvilas (Agra) at No. 16 and The Oberoi New Delhi at No. 86. The only other Indian hotel to make it to the Top 100 is The Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai at No. 97.
This is the elite list of hotels of the world, with iconic brands such as Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental and One & Only as well as legendary hotels with the stature of Le Maurice (Paris), St Regis (NYC), Belmond Hotel Cipriani (Venice) and Plaza Athenee (Paris) studding it.
Udaivilas, Rajvilas and Amarvilas have completed ten consecutive years on the list and therefore have earned a place in the Travel + Leisure Hall of Fame.
By being voted the world’s top hotel brand, The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts has achieved a rare double in the history of the Travel + Leisure awards. It is not often that the hotel that gets the No. 1 spot is also from the group that is crowned the No. 1 brand.
The Oberoi clearly is in distinguished company. The others on the Top 10 list are: Aman; The Peninsula Hotels; Rosewood Hotels & Resorts (which finds itself for the first time on the list); Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts; St Regis (which is making its India debut in Mumbai shortly); Auberge Resorts Collection; Belmond; Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group; and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

The-Photo:-The premier rooms with their semi-private swimming pool at The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The luxury hotel has been voted the world's No. 1 in a poll conducted among 6.3 million Travel + Leisure Magazine readers.

For more lists, go to http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/hotels-top-brands

The Author is Consulting Editor of BW Hotelier.-