Is there a definitive answer on which hotels and resorts are viewed as the best in Mexico, Central America, and South America?

Sort of. I’ve said before that there’s a lot of hanky-panky that goes on with “best of” readers polls in magazines. Ballot stuffing is a part of the job when you’ve got a vested interest in who wins and people who are on the clock are much more likely to go through those hour-long surveys. Plus some readers are voting for places they’ve never set foot in, on reputation alone.

But if the two biggest travel magazines get the same results on some hotels, AND they’re featured here in Luxury Latin America, well that starts to look like a real trend. Three hits and you’re solid. Here are the hotels that came out on top in this year’s Conde Nast Travel Best in the World survey, Travel & Leisure’s 500 Best survey, and our picks here (follow the links to detailed reviews).

Mexico Top Resorts and Hotels

La Casa que Canta – Zihuatanejo

Four Seasons Mexico – Mexico City

One & Only Palmilla – San Jose del Cabo

Las Ventanas al Paraiso – San Jose del Cabo

Capella Pedregal – Cabo San Lucas

Esperanza – Cabo San Lucas

Ritz-Carlton Cancun

Banyan Tree Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Fairmont Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Grand Velas Riviera Maya

Four Seasons Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

St. Regis Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit

Central America Top Resorts and Hotels

Lodge at Chaa Creek – Belize

Hotel Casa Santo Domingo – Antigua, Guatemala

Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica – Papagayo Peninsula

Top Hotels and Resorts South America

Llao Llao Hotel & Resort – Bariloche, Argentina

Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alvear Palace Hotel – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Four Seasons Buenos Aires

Park Hyatt Mendoza – Argentina

Ritz-Carlton Santiago – Chile

Hotel Monasterio – Cusco, Peru

JW Marriott Hotel Lima – Peru

Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel – Peru

Obviously it pays to have a well-known brand name and the hotels that have been around for a decade or more have a clear edge. The big surprise for me is how few matches you see for Chile (where the most impressive resorts have been opening) and for Central America overall. Conde Nast had loads from Costa Rica, but T&L hardly any. Expect that to change in the coming years as more readers get out and about in this region.

We’re more disappointed with U.S. hotel chains than we’ve been in seven years. That’s the conclusion of the most recent J.D. Power consumer survey when it comes to hotel guest satisfaction. When staying at a hotel in the United States, we’re far less happy than we used to be with the service.

As with airlines, it’s not difficult to find the root causes: fewer staffers and annoying fees. As hotels and resorts have cut staff levels in this recession, they’ve also done long-term damage to their brand. A disappointed guest is far less likely to recommend the hotel, either on social media or in person.

The survey also found that reaching into guests’ pocckets again to extract a fee for internet access—now as expected an amenity as hot water—creates outsized annoyance. “Guests who were charged for access had an average satisfaction score of 688 for costs and fees — 76 points lower than those who weren’t charged extra.”

And no, bundling that into a “resort fee” doesn’t help: we hate that too.

Just as free-bag airlines like Southwest and JetBlue come out on top in these surveys, those hoteliers who seem to provide great value in one rate come out on tops here as well: modest Drury Inn has kept its crown in the “midscale limited service” category for seven years now.

Luxury hotel guests are more forgiving of the nickel and diming though. Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, and JW Marriott came out as the top three in the luxury category, with the first one getting the highest score overall. The lower annoyance with extra fees is partly because the company is paying when guests stay there on business, partly because loyal customers get the extra fees waived. And Ritz-Carlton has built up a well-deserved reputation for personalized service and delightful surprises: just the kind of thing guests seem to be missing elsewhere in the DIY atmosphere (and long check-in lines) encountered so often elsewhere.

So what abou Latin America? Fortunately, when you run across an understaffed hotel in this region, it’s an anomoly. While you won’t find the swarms of people falling all over themselves to serve you like you will in India or Indonesia, low staff numbers are seldom an issue. When you stay at a luxury hotel in Latin America, you can expect luxury treatment.

You won’t’ go wrong with the big names, of course, like the ones mentioned above or the Starwood Luxury Collection and St. Regis properties. When those aren’t available in the region though, there are dozens of great local chains and fine independent hotels. See our Luxury hotel reviews in each country for the best of the best, reviewed by an expert travel writer on the ground.

See the full J.D. Power survey results here.

Don’t miss a post! Get our RSS feed or tap into our Facebook page.

........Maroma Resort & Spa, Riviera Maya........

The June issue of Conde Nast Traveler had their readers poll results on top spa hotels and resorts arount the world. South America was missing in action and the “Mexico and Central America” section had 19 results for Mexico spas, one for Central America.

So first of all, congrats to Four Seasons Costa Rica for being the only resort south of Mexico to get on readers’ radar. They were #8 overall, with a perfect score for their facilities. Having soaked in their pools and gotten a great sports massage after a golf game there, I’ll agree wholeheartedly that it’s a special place for unwinding and relaxing.

Travel + Leisure’s last spa rundown had 5 resorts in Central and South America (including another Costa Rica resort, Tabacon).

These magazine reader polls are subject to lots of ballot-stuffing of course. PR firms and hotel chains buy a lot of staffer subscriptions so they can put in their votes. (That partly explains why you see so many perfect scores of 100 at the top.)

But hey, in a bit of circular cause and effect, the most famous places do have the resources to keep facilities and staffers top-notch and with such a high reputation at stake, they’re going to go out of their way to make you happy. After winning these awards, the great ones tend to stay great.

Here are the top spa resorts in Mexico where we’ve reviewed the hotels in detail. (Some of the others placing high are in non-luxury properties.)

Capella Ixtapa
Capella Pedregal – Cabo San Lucas
Maroma Resort & Spa – Riviera Maya
Rosewood Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Esperanza – Los Cabos
Fairmont Mayakoba – Riviera Maya
Pueblo Bonita Emerald Bay – Mazatlan

One&Only Palmilla – Los Cabos
Ritz-Carlton Cancun

Four Seasons Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

See the full list for all regions of the world at CNTraveler.com and follow this link for all our reviews of the best luxury hotels in Mexico.

Naturally I spend most of the time on this blog talking about luxury travel in Mexico, Central America, and South America. But I travel outside of that geography too sometimes and it’s interesting to see what else is happening in the industry, especially in the hotel world. My experiences with two very different hotels in Arizona got me thinking about the two ways luxury hotels and resorts are able to create that elusive “wow experience” – through spectacular visuals or spectacular service.

Spectacular Setting – Enchantment Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona

The first thing staffers ask you when you arrive at Enchantment Resort is, “How was your ride in?” They know the answer is going to be something like “fantastic,” “incredible,” or “unbelievable” because there’s absolutely no chance you won’t be wowed by what you see on the approach to the resort. Even if the rooms were just so-so, the spa was routine, and the food just adequate, this resort would still draw a crowd without trying too hard: the setting is so fantastic that you’re thrilled just to be there.

The rooms, spa, and restaurants are not routine though, which is why this resort often shows up atop readers’ polls and gets lots of return visitors. It’s a special place in a special setting, with service that matches the promise.

For great Latin American resorts in incredible settings, here are a few ideas: Llao Llao and Isla Victoria in Argentina, Cliffs Preserve and Explora Salto Chico in Chile, Casa Palopo in Guatemala, or Casitas del Colca in Peru.

Spectacular Service – Ritz-Carlton Phoenix

Ritz-Carlton hotels have a well-deserved reputation for superlative service. Much of this comes from smart systems and procedures behind the scenes: a daily line-up for each group of workers so everyone’s on the same page, the staffers’ ability to wrong a right or “right a right” for a guest without getting approval from their boss, and encouragement of actions that thrilled a guest instead of just meeting expectations.

The Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix is a city business hotel competing with lots of fancy resorts nearby, so it needs to do more than cover the basics, especially since it’s the hotel of choice for all the visiting rock stars and pro sports teams. I’ve got a picture of the tea set-up in a meeting room here because it’s just one little thing that’s above and beyond: four different kinds of loose tea and fancy painted pots for the hot water.

What really blew me away though was when I went to see the room of a VIP colleague who was at my meeting. In his room was an iPad to use, which is already pretty cool, but when he arrived that iPad was set to his own company’s home page, it was loaded with music he liked, and it had a slideshow of photos of him and his family pulled from the web! The day before he was to check out, they called and asked if they’d like his boarding pass printed.

And here’s the real kicker: months ago, at a different Ritz-Carlton, he had called the front desk to ask if they had any Glide dental floss because his had run out. Here, at this Ritz-Carlton, months later, there was a packet of Glide dental floss on his vanity in the bathroom. Wow indeed.

For great Latin American hotels that deliver incredible service time and again, here are some ideas: Four Seasons Punta Mita and Mexico City, Banyan Tree Mayakoba, Las Ventanas in Cabo, Machaca Hill Belize, Ritz-Carlton Santiago, Alvear Palace Buenos Aires, and Miraflores Park Hotel Lima.

Where are the world’s most expensive hotel suites? On this luxury travel blog I’m usually discussing the scene in Latin America, but since that whole region is a great value, the prices there don’t make the cut.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a big feature story on the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons New York City. If you want to book this lavish suite with panoramic Manhattan views, you’d better be loaded. It’ll cost you $35,000 a night. Don’t even think about asking for a discount and forget any party plans: because of all the expensive furnishings, no more than 10 people are allowed in at one time. Read the whole article to see all the expensive features that go into this price. But for a start, there’s a $120,000 chandelier, Thai silk with gold threads on the canopy bed, and an energy-hogging 850 light bulbs.

This is the most expensive suite in the Americas outside Las Vegas. Some there go for an even higher rate, but are frequently given away free to high-rolling whales with an account of half a million or more. Here are some of the other expensive suites from around the world listed in the article:

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa/Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas – Price per night: $40,000

Bridge Suite/Atlantis, Paradise Island in the Bahamas – Price per night: $25,000

Royal Auite/Burj Al Arab in Dubai – Price per night: $19,000

The Ritz-Carlton Suite/Ritz-Carlton, Moscow – Price per night: $13,900

How does Latin America compare? Well the only suite I can find in our reviews that tops $10,000 per  night is really a house: the four-bedroom Villa Cortez at the One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, Mexico. It has a top rack rate of $12,000, but that includes a private staff of 12 (with two chefs), the huge private infinity pool pictured below, a big cinema room, a full office, and a prime spot on the beach.

The best suite at the Four Seasons Costa Rica goes for close to $10,000 in high season, but is also a villa with multiple bedrooms.

The top suite is under 5 grand at Capella Pedregal in Los Cabos, Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Ritz-Carlton Santiago, and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

For more information on luxury travel and hotels outside of Latin America, see JustLuxe.com