There are few pleasures quite as exquisite as a stay in a five-star hotel. Add “getting a bargain” into the experience, and you may as well add an extra star. Bliss!
Unfortunately, the words “five-star” and “bargain” rarely appear together. To qualify for the top rating, a hotel’s staff must personally greet every guest (with flowers or a gift if in Europe). The accommodation should be luxurious. The facilities should meet every need. This costs money.
Add the “exclusivity premium” – the idea that charging more for a room makes it seem more luxurious – and a plain old night at a Holiday Inn starts to seem more feasible.
Until now! Following our guide to the lowest-price Michelin meals in the world, Top Dollar has identified the cheapest five-star hotel in every country. And they start at less than thirty bucks for a room for two.
The World’s Cheapest Five-Star Hotel is India’s Novotel Ahmedabad Hotel
Click through the gallery to learn more about the world’s 10 cheapest five-star hotels. And scroll on for a closer look at the map, continent-by-continent.
The world’s cheapest five-star hotel costs $28/night: the Novotel Ahmedabad Hotel in Ahmedabad, India. Positioned on the SG highway with nearby airport access and proximity to industrial hubs, the hotel is priced to entice business travelers to stay an extra night. The restaurant serves Japanese and Korean cuisine, and an open-air pool offers respite from the heat.
Eight of the ten cheapest five-star hotels in the world are in Asia, and the other two are in Turkey, which straddles the Europe-Asia border. The resort town of Siem Reap in Cambodia has three of the cheapest hotels in the top ten. The Grand Venus La Residence costs only $39/night for a 592-sq-foot room – and if you can force yourself to go outside, it’s just a short stroll from the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.
North America
North America’s cheapest five-star hotel is a Hilton. The Hotel 1970 Posada Guadalajara in Mexico starts at $79/night and offers a mix of Mexican and contemporary styles at an epic scale. Hilton bought the building and completed a $6.5 million renovation in 2018, adding a Presidential Suite, business lounge, rooftop Sky Bar, fire pit, and custom-made headboards made by local craftspeople.
The cheapest in the States is the ADERO Scottsdale, Autograph Collection in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to the usual five-star amenities, the hotel offers some of the darkest night skies in America as well as on-site star-gazing facilities due to its location in a protected Dark Sky Community in the Sonoran Desert.
South America
A night for two in the NH Collection Bogotá WTC Royal, Colombia, costs just $42 – the cheapest on the continent. The hotel is right next to the Bogotá World Trade Center but offers calming, sound-proofed rooms and proximity to the gardens, cafés, and galleries of the Parque 93 area.
Brazil’s cheapest five-star is the Windsor Plaza in Oscar Niemeyer’s “planned city” of Brasilia. The NH Collection Plaza Santiago is the most expensive five-star to be the cheapest in its country (Chile). It costs $125 per night but offers breathtaking views of the Los Andes mountains.
Europe
We found 16 five-star hotels for under $100 in Europe, and most of them are in the center or east of the continent. Ukraine’s Kupava Deluxe Hotel in Lviv is the cheapest, at $43/night. The Grand Hotel Oslo is at the other end of the scale, costing $212/night. But it has a touch more history than many of the luxury modern hotels we’ve mapped. The building rose around 1840 and became a hotel in 1874. Henrik Ibsen regularly lunched here in the 1890s.
Oddfellows on the Park in Cheadle, Manchester, is the UK’s cheapest five-star hotel. The Victorian mansion is set on the 100-acres Bruntwood Park. The bathrooms are modern, the bedrooms retain their traditional charm and the restaurant occupies a former ballroom. Prices start at $118 for a room for two.
Middle East & Central Asia
Turkey’s cheapest is the Hotel Ickale in Ankara. “You will be rejuvenated and feel reborn through the natural gifts utilized in a room illuminated with candle-light and surrounded by exotic scents,” boasts the hotel of its Bali Massage, while a traditional Turkish bath is also available.
The Golden Tulip in Manama, Bahrain, features the Al Wasmeyyah Restaurant, Kei Japanese Restaurant, and Cavalry Club Bar. It was originally a Hilton hotel in the 1970s before the Golden Tulip group took over.
Rest of Asia & Oceania
India’s Novotel Ahmedabad Hotel is the cheapest in the world, but The Royal Surakarta Heritage Solo MGallery Collection in Surakarta, Indonesia, isn’t far behind at $30/night. The hotel radiates traditional Javanese culture and is exquisitely dressed in batik patterns, antique lighting, and talking-point ornaments.
New Zealand also offers five-star accommodation on the inviting side of $100. DeLorenzo’s Studio Apartments offers rooms for $85, priding itself on remaining small with a home-from-home feel. It was named as New Zealand’s second-best hotel in Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards Hotel of The Year contest.
Africa
Nine African countries offer five-star hotel accommodation for under $100. The cheapest is Egypt’s Steigenberger Resort Achti in Luxor. The hotel sits on the east bank of the River Nile in a 1.2-hectare tropical garden. And there is a marina, so you’ll always have somewhere to park your felucca.
The Palais des Remparts is built between the ramparts of the old medina of Essaouira in Morocco. It has been renovated to capture the essence of Moroccan architecture and décor. It costs just $73 per night.
Five-Star Accommodation at Three-Star Prices
Five-star hotels aren’t usually associated with modesty, but it is possible to have a calming, sensual experience at a very reasonable price. Many of the hotels in our study offer either brand-new facilities or a taste of local tradition, lovingly maintained.
Next time you travel, don’t assume the best hotels are out of your price range. And if you don’t have the cash for a full getaway at the moment, why not book a luxury night away for two at an affordable five-star hotel near you?
METHODOLOGY & SOURCES
We searched for five-star hotels in every country on Hotels.com for a one-night stay for two in July 2021 and found the 10 cheapest accommodations for each country. Sale prices were ignored, and any countries that had fewer than five five-star hotels available were removed. We separated equally priced hotels in the top 10 by favoring the bigger room in terms of square footage.