Las Vegas hotels ranked high in U.S. News & World Report survey

Las Vegas is home to the second-highest number of top-tier hotels in the United States, according to the 2017 Best Hotels Rankings published Thursday by U.S. News & World Report.

The top hotel in the Las Vegas market, according to the rankings: the Mandarin Oriental. The 47-story, 392-room hotel is one of MGM Resorts International’s CityCenter properties.

U.S. News produced its rankings from among more than 3,000 4.5- and 5-star properties based on the number and prominence of awards and recommendations they have received from several travel industry sources and from data collected by TripAdvisor’s guest reviews. The publication’s editors believe the blend of recognition from travel experts and the views of guests staying at the hotels provide unbiased criteria to develop rankings valuable to consumers.

“Our rankings are designed to narrow down the perfect hotel for your vacation — whether it is on a beach, in a major city or in a remote location,” Erin Shields, travel editor at U.S. News, said in a release announcing the rankings. “The U.S. News Best Hotels hit the mark for both travelers and industry experts, offering exceptional customer service and luxury amenities.”

U.S. News also awards the top 10 percent of its ranked hotels a “gold badge,” and Las Vegas has the second most gold-badge resorts among cities in the United States.

New York City has 23 gold-badge winners out of 202 ranked hotels. Las Vegas has 11 out of 46, and Los Angeles has 10 out of 79.

Five states — California, New York, Florida, Hawaii and Colorado — have more gold-badge properties than Nevada.

Among Las Vegas properties, the Aria Sky Suites ranked second, and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was third, beating out the likes of Wynn Las Vegas, Bellagio, the Four Seasons and the Skylofts at MGM Grand.

The highest ranked hotel in the United States was Chicago’s Langham resort.

There are 56 Nevada resorts that made U.S. News’ rankings, and the top 23 are located in Las Vegas. The top Nevada property outside Las Vegas is the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort.

Six Reno properties and four at Lake Tahoe made the list, none getting gold-badge recognition.

Other highlights from the report:

■ Sixteen off-Strip properties made the list, including one, the Golden Nugget, in downtown Las Vegas.

■ Eden Rock-St. Barths ranked as the top hotel in the Caribbean; the One&Only Palmilla in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California, was the best in Mexico and, for the fourth year in a row, Ritz-Carlton, Montreal, ranked best in Canada.

■ U.S. News ranked the best hotels in Cuba for the first time, and the Iberostar Parque Central took the top spot on that list.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.