Leading Hotels of the World

Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. (LHW) is a global hospitality consortium of more than 375 hotels and resorts in over 75 countries. It is headquartered in New York City, and maintains offices in 25 cities worldwide. The consortium is owned by Swiss-based Hotel Representative, A.G.

The company was established in 1928 under the name "Luxury Hotels of Europe and Egypt". It initially had 38 member hotels, including Hotel Negresco in Nice, the Mena House in Cairo and King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Leading Hotels of the World started as a reservation service for independent hotels, and later supported sales and marketing, advertising and public relations, financial services, quality control, and hotel inspections for its member properties. The company does not own hotels; most member hotels are independent, though some are part of chains.

As of 2011^[update] Andrea Kracht, proprietor of Baur au Lac in Zürich, Switzerland, was the chairman of Hotel Representative, A.G., and Theodore (Ted) Teng was the president and chief executive officer. The company had 24 offices around the world.

The company restricts membership to hotels considered to be in the luxury category, which are inspected and voted on by the company's Executive Committee.

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