The Leading Hotels of the World

Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. (LHW) is a hospitality consortium owned by Hotel Representative, A.G. with more than 430 hotels and resorts in over 80 countries.

LHW is headquartered in New York City, US and maintains offices in 25 cities worldwide.

History

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 Andrea Kracht, proprietor of Baur au Lac in Zurich, 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.