One&Only Cape Town Named Best Eco-Friendly Hotel in SA

One&Only Cape Town has taken the top position in the inaugural TourismX Eco-Friendly Hotels Index, becoming the only South African hotel to receive Platinum recognition in the ranking's first edition. Set along the V&A Waterfront with Table Mountain rising behind it and the Atlantic forming its horizon, the property earned its recognition not through a single category but across a methodology that combined verified guest ratings, earned media coverage, and share of voice in the sustainable hospitality conversation.

The index, developed by TourismX, represents a new approach to measuring hotel reputation in South Africa, one that moves beyond guest review scores alone to assess how a property performs across multiple dimensions of visibility and trust. One&Only Cape Town outperformed a strong field to claim the Platinum tier while Mount Nelson, Cape Grace, the President Hotel, and Radisson RED Cape Town V&A Waterfront received Gold recognition.

One&Only Cape Town and the Index Behind the Recognition

TourismX founder Gerrit Davids described the rankings as evidence that South African hotels can combine exceptional guest experiences with sustainability credentials and strong editorial media presence. "The rankings demonstrate that South Africa's leading eco-friendly hotels are combining exceptional guest experiences with strong editorial media visibility," he said, framing the index as a tool for travelers, tourism organizations, investors, and industry stakeholders rather than simply a hospitality honor.

The methodology matters because it changes what recognition actually measures. One&Only Cape Town received a Google rating of 4.7, placing it in the Bronze tier for best individual guest rating, a category led by Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Hyde Johannesburg Rosebank, both scoring 4.8. Its Platinum overall standing therefore reflects consistent strength across all measured dimensions rather than dominance in any single one.

What One&Only Cape Town Actually Offers

The hotel occupies a position on the V&A Waterfront that gives guests immediate access to Cape Town's most visited district while maintaining the sense of seclusion that a luxury property requires. A heated infinity edge pool, a fitness centre with personal training, yoga, and Pilates anchor the wellness offering on the main property, while the One&Only Spa sits on its own private island, with treatment rooms, vitality pools, sauna, and steam facilities creating a separation from the hotel's main body that deepens the sense of retreat.

Dining runs across several distinct venues. Nobu Cape Town brings the Japanese Peruvian fusion format that the global Nobu brand is built on, while ROOI focuses on South African grill cuisine, positioning local ingredients and cooking traditions alongside an internationally recognized dining name. Isola serves the pool area, and the Vista Bar and Lounge extends the property's social dimension into the evening.

The Guest Experience Philosophy Behind the Brand

One&Only Resorts describes its approach as building each stay around the individual guest's pace, interests, and requirements rather than a standardized sequence of amenities and services. At Cape Town, that philosophy meets a city with enough genuine depth to support almost any version of that promise, from guided hikes and whale watching to wine tours through the surrounding winelands and curated cultural exploration across the city's diverse neighborhoods.

The KidsOnly programme extends the property's reach to families traveling with children, while event facilities handle weddings, honeymoons, corporate functions, and private gatherings at a scale that complements the hotel's broader positioning. That range allows the property to serve meaningfully different guest occasions without losing the coherent character that makes it recognizable across all of them.

What Eco-Friendly Recognition Means in Practice

The TourismX index makes an important distinction that many sustainability rankings blur. It combines verified customer sentiment with earned media performance rather than self reported environmental data or certification scores alone, which means a hotel's standing in the index reflects how its reputation reads externally rather than what it claims about itself internally.

For One&Only Cape Town, that distinction is significant. Earning Platinum recognition through a methodology that weighs how the hotel is perceived and discussed across media channels says something about how consistently the property's sustainability positioning has been communicated and how credibly that communication has been received across the industry.

How This Recognition Fits a Wider Hospitality Pattern

Hotels earning repeated external recognition for qualities beyond room count or amenity lists reflect a broader shift in how the luxury hospitality market defines distinction. The same instinct toward recognizing genuine depth and character over generic luxury credentials was visible in the recent announcement that Historic Hotel Bethlehem was named the best historic hotel in the U.S. for the sixth consecutive year, another property whose recognition rests on consistent delivery of something specific rather than broad appeal.

One&Only Cape Town sits within that same logic. Platinum recognition in a methodology that measures reputation holistically rather than rewarding a single exceptional category suggests a property that has built its standing carefully and held it across the multiple dimensions that informed travelers and industry observers actually use to evaluate a hotel.

A Property That Earns Its Setting

Table Mountain above, the Atlantic below, and a waterfront that has anchored Cape Town's international reputation for decades on either side. A hotel that occupies that address carries both the advantage and the obligation of a location that demands to be matched. The TourismX Eco-Friendly Hotels Index's Platinum recognition for One&Only Cape Town suggests that the property has done more than occupy a remarkable site. It has built a reputation worthy of it.

Learn more at One&Only Resorts' official website.