7 Simply Amazing Boutique Hotels
These boutique hotels are destinations in their own right. For more inspiration, check out our hospitality board on Pinterest.
Boutique Hotels for Luxury Travel
1. Awasi by Felipe Assadi Arquitectos and Paula Gutierrez Erlandsen y Asociados
The one-story ranch houses common in Patagonia inspired the 12 prefabricated guest cabins in Awasi, a rustic-luxe getaway in Torres del Paine, Chile. The cabins harmonize with nature on the 237-acre retreat near the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine without interrupting its vastness. Designed by Felipe Assadi Arquitectos and Paula Gutierrez Erlandsen y Asociados, Awasi–a word that means home in Tehuelche, the language of an indigenous Patagonian tribe–seamlessly blends the outdoors with the indoors. Wood, fabrics, and an earthy color palette reference local plants and the nearby park’s craggy granite peaks and glacial lakes.
2. The William by Lilian B Interiors and In Situ Design
Oil paintings commissioned from artist-designer William Engel set the tone on each of the five guest floors at The William, an extended-stay hotel in Manhattan. Once home to the Williams Club of New York, the two adjoining 1900’s town houses with a duplex penthouse addition boast 33 guest rooms and suites. Mason Wickham and Edwin Zawadzki of In Situ Design, Lilian Bakhash of Lilian B Interiors, and Engel all took their cues from one another, resulting in a blue, teal, pink, green, or orange with chartreuse color scheme for each floor. Engel’s paintings hang in the guest corridors and penthouse suites’ living rooms.
3. La Dimora di Metello by Manca Studio
At La Dimora di Metello in Matera, Italy, architects and Matera natives Marina and Alfredo Manca of Manca Studio wed ancient to contemporary for an unexpected take on minimalism. Walls and ceilings are carved out of the indigenous volcanic rock. The hotel, composed of a reception area, spa, and four guest rooms, is decorated with custom, pale oak furniture while neutral, natural fibers make up the draperies, bedspreads, and sheets. The innovative hotel signals a prosperous new beginning for Matera, an ancient, hilly city that has seen many masters and is dominated by a landscape of canyons, valleys, and plateaus.
4. Hôtel Vernet by François Champsaur
When told to do something Parisian in his redesign of the Hôtel Vernet in Paris, François Champsaur had a vision of art and artisanship. He custom-designed much of the hotel’s furniture and brought in original artwork to hang above the curved banquettes in the restaurant, the V. The glass and iron roof over the V, originally a dance hall contributed by Gustave Eiffel, is punctuated with blue and beige twig shapes, an antique motif made contemporary. Guest rooms feature era-appropriate crown moldings, specified sink fittings in unfinished brass that will develop a natural patina as they age, French oak floor planks, tall headboards, and wall-size sliding doors.
5. Tuve Hotel by Design Systems
Design Systems’ plan for the powerfully quiet Tuve Hotel in Hong Kong was inspired by a Dane’s photographs of a foggy, rocky lake in Tuve, Sweden. To enter the dark and mysterious hotel, the ultimate respite from a bustling, sweltering tropical metropolis, guests travel through a tunnel of fiberglass-reinforced board-formed concrete. Their fingerprints polish the natural brass that tops the reception desk, while LED rays radiate across the heavily veined marble floor. Each of the 66 guest rooms feature cast-concrete walls with gold flakes to glam up accidental crevices.
6. Monverde Wine Experience Hotel by FCC Architecture and Paulo Lobo Interior Design
What began as a pair of dilapidated outbuildings is now a luxury hotel, the Monverde Wine Experience Hotel in Amarante, Portugal, with 29 guest rooms and a suite. FCC Architecture and Paulo Lobo Interior Design collaborated to place agriculture, like a sculpture, on a well-crafted pedestal. The main house has been expanded to include the lobby–with a kinetic installation of carved cedar leaf shapes–and reception, a gourmet restaurant, a convivial bar, a graceful spa, and conference facilities. There is also the winery proper, with its tasting rooms and dramatically curved fermentation room lined with big oak barrels. Paintings and photographs of the rolling terrain punctuate the façade of pine slats and Cor-Ten steel, and subtle rhythms and well-balanced contrasts create a harmony between rural history and an urbane contemporary aesthetic.
7. 21c Museum Hotel Durham by Deborah Berke Partners and Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel
The 21c Museum Hotel Durham occupies the Hill Building, which was built for a bank and department store in 1937 by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the architecture firm behind the Empire State Building. In their renovation, Deborah Berke Partners and Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel preserved the original marble walls, metal elevator doors, and terrazzo flooring after Berke “felt an immediate affinity with the art deco.” Shiny chrome architect’s lamps illuminate retro headboards and a scattering of satin-and-velvet pillows in the 125 guest rooms and suites. Floor tiles screen-printed with scattered dollar bills, an artwork by Leslie Lyons and J.B. Wilson, line the floors of the lounge, which was once the safe-deposit vault.
