The prestigious Forbes Travel Guide, a global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas, and ocean cruises, has recognized 28 Texas properties on its 2025 awards list, including nine in Austin.
The 67th annual list spans nearly 2,200 properties around the world, with three levels of ratings: Five-Star, Four-Star, and Recommended. To determine the ratings, inspectors visit every hotel, restaurant, spa, and cruise ship in person, visiting anonymously as a typical guest to review the quality and condition of each property and its overall guest experience. Participants pay a fee to be considered, but no one can buy a rating.
The Austin honorees include:
Restaurants:
- Garrison, Austin: 4-star
Hotels:
- Archer Hotel, Austin: 4-star
- Austin Proper Hotel, Austin: 4-star
- Commodore Perry Estate Auberge Resorts Collection, Austin: 4-star
- Fairmont Austin, 4-star
- Four Seasons Hotel Austin, 4-star
Spas:
- Fairmont Spa Austin: 4-star
- The Spa at Four Seasons Austin: 4-star
- Verbena Spa at Austin Proper Hotel: 4-star
New for 2025, Forbes Travel Guide unveiled its inaugural cruise restaurant ratings.
"Behind every Forbes Travel Guide Star Award lies a thousand small gestures: the concierge who tracks down a hidden café beloved by locals, the chef who sources ingredients from a generations-old farm, the spa therapist who crafts custom aromatherapy blends from native flowers," the report said.
The 2025 list has many repeat honorees from 2024.
Only three properties in Texas earned five stars this year: The Ritz-Carlton Dallas hotel, The Post Oak Hotel in Houston, and the Post Oak's luxurious spa. The only new Texas property in this year's guide is The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas hotel in Irving, which earned a Recommended rating.
The Post Oak Hotel in Houston earned a five-star rating.
Photo courtesy of The Post Oak Hotel
Other (non-Austin) Texas properties that made the 2025 list, by category:
Restaurants:
- Fearing's, Dallas: 4-star
- The Mansion, Dallas: 4-star
Hotels:
- The Ritz-Carlton Dallas: 5-star
- The Joule, Dallas: 4-star
- Hall Arts Hotel Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton: Recommended
- Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas: Recommended
- The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas: Recommended (new)
- The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston: 5-star
- Four Seasons Hotel Houston, 4-star
- Hotel Granduca Houston: 4-star
- The Houstonian Hotel Club & Spa: 4-star
- The St. Regis Houston: 4-star
- Hotel Emma, San Antonio: Recommended
- Mokara Hotel & Spa, San Antonio: 4-star
Spas:
- The Ritz Carlton Spa, Dallas: 4-star
- The Spa at the Joule, Dallas: 4-star
- The Spa at the Post Oak Hotel Houston: 5-star
- Trellis Spa, Houston: 4-star
- Mokara Spa, San Antonio: 4-star
The Forbes Travel guide started in 1958 as Mobil Travel Guide, a guidebook for US motorists. They created the original Five-Star rating system for hospitality in the US.
