When the Hinduja family, owners of Raffles London at the OWO (Old War Office), threw a grand opening party in October, they made a splash. They enticed both Andrea Bocelli and Andrew Lloyd Webber to make music, together and onstage. This was a first for these two maestros to sing and tinkle as a duo.

It’s not only new properties that are starting with an incredibly high bar. Raffles Singapore shows that even the anchor for a historic brand strives to keep inventing. Two years ago, the hotel opened a unique retail concept in its high-end designer arcade. What looks from outside to be a shop selling one-off and over-the-top hats is, in fact, the entrance to Singapore’s top private members’ club, the Centurion Lounge. Go into the shop, show your American Express Centurion card, and a wall of hats swings open to give entry to a 40-seat bar, lounge, and restaurant. A separate private room gives yet more exclusivity.

That’s not all. A few months ago, Raffles Singapore opened the world’s first Macallan House, a partnership with the privately-owned whisky distillery, part of Glasgow-based Edrington’s portfolio. And, only five minutes’ walk from Macallan House, the Butcher’s Block restaurant, one of its myriad of dining options, is evolving to Hawaiian heaven. Butcher’s Block chef-manager, Jordan Keao, was born on the islands and his signature now is a multi-course imua, “moving forward with strength and purpose.”

After such intake, time for a spot of culture. The current Raffles writer-in-residence, Madeleine Lee, is a renowned local poet, and she pens brilliant vignettes of Raffles’s happenings. On the music side, the hotel hosts Singapore Symphony concerts, free to all, every other month—from Singapore Sling to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. It’s also rumoured, by the way, that hotel MD Christian Westbeld is working on something else that will apparently give even more global recognition. “We always strive to surpass expectations,” he says with a wry smile.

What else is new with this brand? In Paris, Le Royal Monceau Raffles is upping the ante in Le Bar Long, with an enhanced colour scheme and bespoke fashion for all servers. They might well even outshine the gowns at the customary New Year’s Eve gala, where dancing is interspersed with food from the top chefs not only of Le Bar Long but its in-hotel siblings, Il Carpaccio and Matsuhisa.

Food is increasingly the reason luxury travellers opt for one resort over another. The vastly improved 28-year-young Soneva Fushi in the Maldives has not one but two stunning Japanese places. Master chefs from Tokyo man a four-seat set-up called So Hands On with sushi by chef Akira Koba, and an eight-seat circular counter called So Bespoke with teppanyaki by chef Hiroshi Saiki, both open-air and rooftop in a still-new two-floor overwater “eat-ertainment” centre, with which Soneva boss Sonu Shivdasani quickly proved its over-US$4 million (HK$31.2 million) investment was justified. At the same time, additional overwater villas have been added, with floor-set windows to watch mantras and stingrays, and rooftop-swirling chutes to cascade down into the clear turquoise water to join in the fun yourself. Of course, being Soneva, all villas all have temperature-controlled wine refrigerators. Filled, of course.

In Hong Kong, Landmark Mandarin Oriental has dared, with great success, to upgrade its Michelin-starred Amber. As many already know, its fringed ceiling art has gone. Now, look up at Tony Chi’s elegant metallic open coil while pairing Iberian pork chin with Western Australian winter truffle, kabu, mizuna, dry sherry, and vintage sherry vinegar, and—since Amber’s culinary wiz Richard Ekkebus is its local ambassador—at least a glass of Dom Pérignon. You cannot go higher up the luxury stakes than that.