100 Percent

Our editorial team selects their favorite designs from hotels that joined the Tablet selection in 2023.

We’ve sifted through every hotel added to our selection this year and picked the places we think have the best overall designs. This is a subjective list, as all such lists are, but we were guided by a set of objective criteria. Each hotel must have extraordinary design, of course — a work of art both inside and out, filled with personality and the voice of its creators. And the whole property should be in conversation with its surroundings, culturally and environmentally.

But there’s one other quality that’s more important than those:

The hotel must be 100% what it is.

By which we mean, it takes no plays off. Every nook and cranny of every room and public space is committed to the prevailing theme. From the door handles and sink faucets to the restaurants and hallways, there’s no mistaking where you are, and there’s no element too inconsequential to be considered for how it furthers the overall narrative. Like any great work of architecture or design, the hotel is a total, complete, thorough experience of itself.

We’ve all been in hotels where it’s obvious that the design budget went mostly to the lobby, while the rooms feel copy-pasted from any number of places you’ve stayed before. Or a mid-century modern home that’s had too many owners and not enough love. The carpets are all wrong and the paint makes no sense and the light fixtures and furniture choices are completely era-inappropriate. It’s depressing, even if the bones are great. Especially if the bones are great.

That’s why 100% commitment is what we’re looking for. Here are twelve hotels that meet that criteria in 2023.
 

Sublime Comporta

Comporta, Portugal

With a name like Sublime Comporta, this high-end country retreat is hardly underselling itself. But the aesthetic is more classic, the look and feel more elegantly restrained, than you’d expect. The hotel is located on a 42-acre estate dotted with umbrella pines. Accommodations span 34 rooms and suites across a handful of buildings, balancing a starkly modern first impression with subtly cozy elements.

Caravan by Habitas Dakhla

Dakhla, Western Sahara

Caravan Dakhla is nothing if not immersive; Habitas aims not only to preserve the natural environment (the Dakhla Lagoon, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa), but to bring guests in close contact with the local culture, and the local culture is present here in every aspect of the experience, from the interior design to the artistic and educational programming.

Pepe Vieira Restaurant & Hotel

Poio, Spain

The setting for Pepe Vieira is a relatively secluded one, surrounded by forest in Galicia’s coastal countryside. Its rooms make much of this immersion in nature — each one is a freestanding modern cube with a vast picture window, drawing the eye from the sober minimalist-luxe interiors to the tranquil scenes outside. They’re called “galpones,” or sheds, which is an intentional understatement.

Hotel des Dunes

Lège-Cap-Ferret, France

Hotel des Dunes is named for the beach of the same name, which is just down the road, and for the dunes that are characteristic of Cap Ferret. The hotel’s style is unpretentious, resembling first and foremost the oyster shacks that are common to the region — and, once you’re inside, displaying an affinity with California surf culture and with the laid-back but elegant atmosphere often found in the Hamptons.

Volga

Mexico City, Mexico

It’s named for the road it’s on, which is in turn named for the most famous river in Russia. And if there’s something a bit Eastern Bloc about this concrete tower, it’s probably down to the associations of Brutalism, or maybe the Tarkovsky-like tableau of its minimalist interior atrium garden. But Volga, the hotel, is a pure expression of today’s Mexico City — a city that’s as cosmopolitan as it is unique.

Soho House Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey

The fact that Soho House Istanbul is set in a palazzo built by a 19th-century Genoese merchant is a reminder that this city was, for centuries, a byword for cosmopolitanism and international commerce. The location is spectacular, right in the heart of the ancient district of Beyoğlu. Aesthetically, it’s something of a departure for the Soho House brand, but only because it’s tailored to a city with a strong visual identity.

Leeda’s Village

Zakynthos, Greece

The typical Greek island experience involves a sun-bleached, arid cliffside somewhere in the Aegean. But Zakynthos is not the typical Greek island. It’s only here that something as lush and green as Leeda’s Village could exist — a set of weathered but rather grand stone buildings nestled amidst olive groves, gardens, and lawns, offering an experience that’s subtle, even sedate, but no less sublime.

The Serangoon House

Singapore, Singapore

Named for its location on Little India’s Serangoon Road, Serangoon House Singapore is as pure an Indian colonial fantasy as you’re likely to find outside of the subcontinent itself. The lobby is dazzlingly opulent, decked out in custom-made antique-style furniture and bold, brash colors; the 90 rooms and suites are a touch more modern, but absolutely no less lavish in style.

The Georgian

Santa Monica, California, USA

A turquoise-and-gold Art Deco mini-skyscraper, the Georgian is nothing if not distinctive. Its history since its Thirties opening is not unbroken, but under new owners — and with the help of some skilled local designers — it’s been restored to an approximation of its former glory, less a faithful restoration and more a lovingly conceived tribute, a fantasy version of Golden Age opulence.

La Casa de los Naranjos

Canary Islands, Spain

Hotel Emblemático La Casa de los Naranjos offers a view of a slower and simpler time, and a type of hospitality that’s directly at odds with modern mass-market tourism. The house itself is a well-preserved landmark, a 19th-century manor house, and the décor is an eclectic mix of antique and contemporary elements that everywhere pays tribute to the historical setting and the house’s style of relaxed elegance.

The Lincoln Hotel

Biddeford, Maine, USA

A beautiful red-brick industrial building from the early 1900s is the raw material for the Lincoln Hotel, a 33-room luxury boutique hotel in the riverside town of Biddeford, Maine. This old textile mill retains many of its original, well-worn architectural features, and they’re complemented by an eclectic array of interventions, some clean-lined and modern, others elegantly Art Deco or whimsically postmodern.

Maslina Resort

Stari Grad, Croatia

Each of Maslina’s 53 rooms, suites, and villas looks out over the water, a protected bay on the west side of the island of Hvar, and the interiors, however handsome, stay restrained, the better to draw the eye outward. The style combines Nordic-inspired minimalism with pure Mediterranean warmth, and though they’re visually somewhat spartan, the comforts verge on the indulgent.