This Indian Hotel Named Third Best In The World. The Number 1 Is...

Here's a look at the top hotels, according to La Liste.

The 94-room Belmond Hotel Cipriani has a storied history. It was opened in the 1950s by the inventor of the Bellini, with a bar that continues to be legendary to this day. It has an Olympic-sized outdoor swimming pool at the edge of the Canale di San Giorgio Maggiore, apparently the result of confusion between feet and meters during construction. And on Thursday it was named the best hotel in the world by a new list that gives properties a composite score based on information that's compiled from a wide array of sources.

The list, called Top 1,000 World's Best Hotels, is by French company La Liste. Its rankings are not a result of a judging panel that conducts in-person visits, but rather a compilation of customer ratings on booking websites, published reviews from travel magazines, global and local media coverage, as well as other travel guides. It's a similar format and methodology as what the company uses to produce the namesake global restaurants list for which it's best known.

Helene Pietrini, managing director of La Liste, said she saw a gap in the market for a resource that pulls together various reviews into one place that travellers can scroll through to get their imagination going.

"People love to be inspired with hotels ranked from the best to not the worst, but all the great hotels in the world," she said in an interview. "They want to see a longer list of great places to go to, not always the most expensive." Sustainability and uniqueness are more important to some consumers than luxury, she added, which is in part why some specific hotels are pulled out and highlighted.