“Who better to trust than people you know?” our writers ask in this month’s 2012 Travel Forecast. The question is inspired by the glut of travel sites touting user reviews, warts—unreliable sources and less-than-expert opinions—and all. I like to think of Travel + Leisure’s annual roundup of the top hotels in the world, based on the results of our World’s Best Awards survey, as crowd-sourcing of a very different kind. The sources here are T+L readers, among the most experienced travelers there are, and the results have been carefully screened. If some hotels you love are missing, it may be because, as worthy as they are, they have not yet received broad enough support to qualify—another measure we take to ensure the stability and validity of our survey.