The famed Forbes Travel Guide, a global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas, and ocean cruises, has unveiled its 2024 Star Awards, with 30 properties from Texas making the list, including five Houston hotels.

This year's list — the 66th annual — spans more than 2,000 properties around the world, with three levels of ratings: Five-Star, Four-Star, and Recommended.

Dubai made the biggest gain with five new Five-Star hotels. Other high-ranking cities included Doha, Kuwait, and Macau, plus notable newcomers Rwanda and Kenya, although a release notes that smaller metro areas like Nashville, Charleston, and New Orleans all made good showings in the hotel and spa categories.

In Texas, the list included five restaurants, 17 hotels, and eight spas.

Tilman Fertitta's Post Oak Hotel scored five stars once again. Photo courtesy of The Post Oak Hotel

In a reprise of 2023, only three properties in Texas earned five stars: Tilman Fertitta's perennial winner the Post Oak Hotel (and its spa) here in Houston, Carte Blanche restaurant in Dallas, and the Ritz-Carlton Dallas hotel.

Scoring five stars is nothing new for the Post Oak Hotel, which now lands the Five-Star rating for the fourth consecutive year. That makes it Texas’ only Double Five-Star rated hotel and spa, and the only Forbes Five-Star rated spa in the state for the sixth year in a row, per press materials.

The Spa at the Post Oak Hotel. Photo courtesy of The Post Oak Hotel

Meanwhile, Forbes' crack crew of inspectors were charmed by The Houstonian Hotel Club & Spa. “You likely will forget you’re in Houston…” a Forbes reviewer noted of the Mediterranean-style architecture, outdoor soaking pools, garden experience, and ultra-personalized service.

“We had a little boy whose stuffy toy was swept away with the laundry,” recalls Houstonian director of marketing Seliece Womble. “Our staff found it and decided to make it seem as if the toy was not lost – just out playing. Photos of the toy and its new Texas friend, a stuffed armadillo, were taken at the pool, under trees, and in the restaurant and shared with the boy’s parents. It was a fun, thoughtful moment for the staff and the family.”

Reviewers loved The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa soaking pools and garden. Photo courtesy of The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa

These are the properties in Texas that made the 2024 list, by category:

Hotels:

• 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
• Adolphus / Dallas: Recommended
• 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
• Hall Arts Hotel / Dallas: Recommended
• Hotel Emma / San Antonio: Recommended
• The Joule / Dallas: 4-star
• Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek / Dallas: Recommended
• Mokara Hotel & Star/ San Antonio: 4-star
• The Ritz-Carlton Dallas: 5-star

Restaurants:

• Carte Blanche / Dallas: 5-star
• Fearing's / Dallas: 4-star
• Garrison / Austin: 4-star
• The Mansion / Dallas: 4-star
• French Room / Dallas: Recommended

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.

To determine the ratings, Forbes Travel Guide's inspectors visit every hotel, restaurant, spa, and cruise ship in person, visiting anonymously as a typical guest. Participants pay a fee to be considered, but no one can buy a rating.