The £35m Gainsborough Bath Spa has been included in a prestigious list of the world’s top new hotels.
The 99-room hotel, which officially opened on Beau Street last September, features in the Condé Nast Traveller 2016 Hot List: The Best New Hotels in the World.
The listing features the editors’ and contributing reporters’ handpicked selection of their favourite new hotels for 2016. The writers visited hotels in 36 countries across six continents to compile their report. 
From the many hundreds of new venues opened over the past year they selected 60 that represent the trailblazers of the hotel world – and where the savvy traveller is heading next.
According to Condé Nast Traveller, these hotels set themselves apart from the rest as they strike the right balance between old-school extravagance and just the right measure of modernity.
The editors praised The Gainsborough Bath Spa as “a place to live, and soak, like a Roman, in one of England’s prettiest towns (sic)”.
The Gainsborough is the only hotel in the UK to use natural thermal waters – the result of a 40-metre bore hole sunk during the building work to draw spa water. Two of its rooms even feature baths with three taps – hot, cold and thermal.
It is also the first UK hotel to be opened by YTL Hotels, part of the Malaysian YTL conglomerate that owns Bath-based Wessex Water, and the first hotel in the city to be part of the Leading Hotels of the World collection. Prices start at £285 a night on a room-only basis.
YTL Hotels, which took over the operating contact of the neighbouring Thermae Spa in 2014, operates 26 prestigious hotels, mainly in the Far East.
The Hot List also congratulates the hotel’s design by award-winning New York-based Champalimaud Design, which pays homage to the building’s history and Georgian characteristics. The main building was formerly the Royal United Hospital until it moved to its current location in Weston and was most recently part of the City of Bath College
YTL Hotels president Dato Mark Yeoh said: “We are genuinely honoured to receive this award from such a renowned and respected publication. This award recognises not only the original concept and design of our beautiful buildings but also the high levels of service which our staff provide on a day-to-day basis. It is great news for The Gainsborough and great news for Bath.”
