Zerotwonine

You know that 029 loves everything travel & lifestyle related. And we go weak in the knees for exceptionally designed hotels. That is why we wanted to share with you this excellent article, courtesy of The Frog & Princess - about their favourite design hotels.

Because when it comes to jet-setting around the world and staying in exquisite hotels, well Mrs. Princess and Mr. Frog have quite some expert experience under their Gucci belts, or maybe Hermès?

Without further ado…The Frog & Princess’ favourite design hotels from two very stylish individual.

My Favorite Design Boutique Hotels.

Definition: boutique hotel = a small, luxury hotel offering premium services, often located in a fashionable location.

Etymology: from boutique ’small, exclusive shop’.

Hotel Keppler

PZ loves boutique hotels. So does her Frog. I drool over the gorgeous modern designs, charming ambiance and cool high-tech facilities. The small number of rooms also mean better client attention and less likely to bump into troops of noisy children.

Boutique hotels have mushroomed all over the world, in answer to travelers looking for small, luxury, intimate accommodations, the alternative to the large mass-market chain hotels. Boutique hotels are the fastest-growing niche market in many cities with individual, chic hotels quickly ascertaining its presence as THE place to be.

They tend to be life-style focused, brand-marketed and intent on creating a dream and not just of practicality for providing a place to sleep. The origins of boutique hotel I’d say started with Blakes Hotel, London by hotelier designer Anouska Hempel. Each of the 51 rooms carries its own unique individual design, earning its reputation as “The Couture Hotel.” Although I’ve been lucky to dine there, I have stayed at the sister hotel Blakes in Amsterdam (now The Dylan) and I can most certainly say if Amsterdam wasn’t so beautiful, I’d be happy to stay in the red oriental bedroom all day.

Blakes, Amsterdam

So here I’d like to share with you some PZ favourites – old classics and new – just to spread the joy. There’s so many of course that it’s a really tough selection!! So note there will be further posts on this topic. Please do share your must-stay boutique hotels wherever it may be and I’ll add them with your mention in future posts.

Paris:

L’Hotel

- L’Hotel (Oscar Wilde’s haunt on the Left Bank). Winner of the best urban hotel in the world 2008, Harper’s Bazaar. 20 rooms individually decorated.

Hotel Keppler

- Hotel Keppler by Pierre-Yves Rochon. 39 divine rooms. New.

London:

Haymarket Hotel

-The Haymarket Hotel by Tim and Kip Kent. A landmark building by the
legendary John Nash.  50 rooms.

The Sanderson

- The Sanderson hotel by Philippe Starck.

Barcelona:

Casa Fuster

- Casa Fuster. Restored Landmark building in the modernist style (like Gaudi.)

Hotel Omm

- Hotel Omm by architect Juli Capella and interior designers Sandra Tarruella and Isabel López. 91 rooms.

Singapore:

New Majestic Hotel

- New Majestic Hotel. 30 individually designed rooms, mixing vintage and designer.

Hong Kong:

Abeo

- Abeo. 52 rooms. State of the art technology and architecture

Lang Kwai Wang Hotel

- Lang Kwai Wang Hotel. Boutique hotel style but 162 rooms (pretty typical in HK). Gorgeous though with fantastic panoramic views.

PZ.

http://frogandprincess.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/my-favorite-design-boutique-hotels/

Thank you very much for organising the stay.

I have visited the different locations in the hotel (business centre, spa) in order to get an overview of the facilities and different rooms/salons.

To my impression, the distinct positive factor of the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, compared with other hotels of this category is that although the hotel is huge (which always tends to create an anynomous atmosphere) one feels immediately well-received as the atmosphere is, on the one hand, professional and international but at the same time warm and friendly.

I  believe this is mainly due to the hotel staff which is authentic and naturally friendly. The reason for this may be that a lot of the service staff (at least, the people I dealt with) is in the age of 30 to 40 and is “senior enough to understand professional service but young enough to be easy going. ”

Best regards and thanks again to everyone,

Andreas Lange

Dear Christiane,

Thank you for your message. As promised, here is my travel report.

The preview was mind-blowing. In hindsight, the number of visitors varied a great deal. In any case, tens of thousands of visitors is a realistic figure. Looking back on it, thanks to your help, we were in a well-arranged row of about 80 people with a very manageable wait time of only 30 minute. The official “queue” stretched over 1.5 kilometres (five-people-deep) and the waiting time was certainly several hours.

The presentation of the objects was truly breathtaking and could hardly be surpassed in terms of their opulence, expressiveness and abundance. We acquired several catalogues and books and eagerly followed the auction during those days. I can assure you that this event was an incomparable experience for us, it offered unparallel opportunities. To even be allowed to breathe in the spirits of these objects really moved me emotionally. It was really unique.

Regarding the rest of the trip, I can confess that, at the moment, Montparnasse is “very up and coming”. Here you can also find that design hotel “Amour” (the one with the cryptic homepage). In St. Germain, we had a wonderful nightcap at L’Hotel (highly recommend the whisky sour!! It was the best I’ve ever had). Hotel Costes for a cocktail and George V for afternoon tea are still worth seeing and doing. For shopping, Colette, L’Éclaireur and Palais Royal are still THE most important addresses.

Thank you once again.

Kindest regards,
Annette