The winners of our 2026 César awards have been announced. Named after the legendary Swiss ‘King of Hoteliers’, César Ritz, our Césars, ‘the Oscars of hotel-keeping’, were launched in 1986, nine years after the Guide’s founding. César winners are the best of the best, judged by us to be the most outstanding in their region, or in each of our ‘Editor’s Choice’ categories. These categories vary slightly from year to year and have expanded from an initial ten to 21.

While we have no ‘Best Newcomer’ award this time, we are excited about two winners new to The Guide, the richly atmospheric Abbots Grange (Best Romantic), and The House of George W. Davies (Best Foodie), which thrilled our inspector when it opened in August 2025. Though both hotels, by chance, are in Broadway, Worcestershire (increasingly a hotel hotspot), they are strikingly different, one steeped in history, the other, behind its traditional façade, at the cutting edge of fashion.

Abbots Grange could equally have been a contender for ‘Best Historic’, introduced in collaboration with Britain magazine, but that accolade went to Hartwell House in the Chilterns, a grand mansion in parkland, beautifully maintained by the National Trust, with the ambience of a stately home, artworks and antiques.

Best for Garden Lovers, the Pig in the Cotswolds is both new to the Césars and an old awards favourite. The former Barnsley House in Gloucestershire, it is the latest addition to the burgeoning Pig collection, with landscaped gardens laid out from the 1950s by Rosemary Verey, doyenne of the English garden style.

As regular readers will know, certain special hotels may crop up more than once on our awards lists, simply because they are so consistently excellent. The Nare and The Scarlet (Best Seaside and Best with Spa), both in Cornwall, are no strangers to our lists, nor is Newforge House in Co. Armagh (Best in Ireland), which is run with such heart and soul by Louise and John Mathers.

Hart’s Hotel in Nottingham, which scooped Best in City/Town, is an eco-friendly contemporary venture for Tim and Steffa Hart, whose former hunting box, Hambleton Hall, overlooking Rutland Water, has been repeatedly recognised by this Guide for country-house comforts, delightful grounds and Michelin-starred cuisine.

Then, even as Henry Hunter’s friendly and affordable Castle Hotel in Shropshire has been rated Best for Dogs, the Hunter family’s Pen y Dyffryn is sitting pretty as Best in the Midlands.

As always, the César winners are diverse, reflecting the eclecticism that is so characteristic of the Guide. They range from Sam and Claire Mercer Nairne’s quaint and characterful pub with rooms and fishing hotel, The Meikleour Arms (Best in Scotland), to the ever-innovative, luxurious but family-friendly Chewton Glen on the edge of the New Forest (Best in the South), and the sensational Gilpin Hotel and Lake House, Windermere (Best in the North). Gordon’s in coastal Inverkeilor, an intimate mother-and-son enterprise (Best Restaurant with Rooms), and Chad Pike’s The Three Daggers in Wiltshire (Best Pub with Rooms), comfortably hold their own alongside Congham Hall in Norfolk, a Georgian manor house so brilliantly restored and cared for by Nicholas Dickinson as the nightmare von Essen years fade from memory.

When choosing hotels for awards – and, indeed, awards for hotels – we are heavily influenced by readers’ feedback and, of course, by our inspectors’ reports. Some hotels attract perennial flurries of reports, including from readers whom we have long known and trusted. Now and then we receive a single report so detailed, plausible and perceptive that we are bound to take notice.

No hotel is a shoo-in, and all are eligible for consideration. In this, you can play an essential part by dropping us a line to let us know of recent positive experiences, a warm welcome, a great meal, a fabulous room, exceptional service… As we have so often said, readers’ reports are the life blood of the Guide, and you, too, can have your say, so please stay in touch.