Relais & Châteaux reports 7% year-on-year growth in 2025

Luxury hotel association Relais & Châteaux has reported 7% year-on-year growth and combined total revenue of $2.8 billion in 2025.

The results were revealed in the group’s annual business survey based on insights from 94% of its members, which comprise 580 independent hotels and restaurants in 65 countries around the world. 

Relais & Châteaux welcomed 34 new members in 2025 spanning five continents, including Asia, which the association highlighted as a key growth destination.

Member hotels were selected through a “policy of measured growth” focused on “unique properties embodying excellence and authenticity, where quality consistently takes precedence over scale”.

In 2025, the number of applications from independent hotels and restaurants increased by 14% compared to the previous year, rising from 540 to 615 candidates.

The UK represented Relais & Châteaux’s third-largest source market, accounting for 9% of total sales, while the US generated 42% of revenue.

Across the association’s collection of UK properties – which expanded in 2025 to include Prestonfield House in Edinburgh and The Torridon in the Scottish Highlands (pictured) – a total of 68% of guests were domestic.

Relais & Châteaux’s Irish properties welcomed 52% domestic guests and 6% from the UK.

President Laurent Gardinier said: “Relais & Châteaux continues to assert itself as a global reference in excellence-driven hospitality and gastronomy. The results recorded in 2025 primarily reflect the commitments of members who bring singular properties to life, deeply rooted in their landscapes.

“They underscore the relevance of a demanding model in which quality, authenticity, hospitality and gastronomy are the true drivers of performance and long-term attractiveness. These results also illustrate the evolution of a model in which hospitality goes beyond service to become a way of inhabiting the world.”