Palace Hotel Tokyo joined elite company this month after Travel + Leisure recognized the Marunouchi property as ‘Best Hotel, 100 or More Rooms’ in its annual Design Awards.

Citing the hotel for its “understated luxury,” its “traditional grandeur” and “sense of sophisticated restraint,” the hotel won top honors in its category and is the first ever Japanese hotel to receive a T+L Design Award.

“More than anything, we wanted the look and feel of this hotel to exhibit and celebrate hallmarks of Japanese aesthetics,” said Masaru Watanabe, the hotel’s executive director and general manager. “The T+L award puts an exclamation point on the realization of that ambition.”

The ninth annual T+L jury included luminaries in the fields of interior design, journalism, architecture, fashion, culinary and creative design. The 7-member panel also singled out the world’s top new museum, mode of transportation, spa, restaurant and public space among other categories.

For Palace Hotel Tokyo, the T+L award caps a string of recent acknowledgements, from the hotel’s inclusion on Destinasian’s “Luxe List” to recognition by the Hotel Investment Conference in Asia Pacific as “Development of the Year”. And while Elite Traveler hailed the hotel’s Palace Suite as one of the “Top 101 Suites in the World”, back home, Nikkei Trendy lauded the property for being the top luxury hotel in Tokyo and evian SPA garnered a SpaFinder Crystal Award for ‘Best Spa Concept’ in Japan.

A half-dozen design firms collaborated on the hotel’s development, with GA Design International having taken the lead.

More than anything, we wanted the look and feel of this hotel to exhibit and celebrate hallmarks of Japanese aesthetics,” said Masaru Watanabe, the hotel’s executive director and general manager. “The T+L award puts an exclamation point on the realization of that ambition.”

The ninth annual T+L jury included luminaries in the fields of interior design, journalism, architecture, fashion, culinary and creative design. The 7-member panel also singled out the world’s top new museum, mode of transportation, spa, restaurant and public space among other categories.