Honor Roll #3

Our editors have selected their favorite designs from hotels added to the Tablet selection in the past year. You’ve seen the winners for Europe and North America. Here’s the rest of the world.

See the whole series:
Best New Hotel Designs (Europe, 2025)
Best New Hotel Designs (North America, 2025)
Best New Hotel Designs (Rest of World, 2025)

We’ve sifted through every hotel added to our selection over the previous year and picked those 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 five objective criteria.

We looked for creativity: Hotels that put on clear display the personality, originality, and ingenuity of their creators.
We looked for novelty: Hotels with unique themes, one-of-a-kind arrangements, and idiosyncratic interpretations of hospitality.
We looked for dedication: Hotels with a complete and thorough commitment to their narrative, down to the door handles and deck chairs.
We looked for compatibility: Hotels that complement, improve, reflect, and protect the surrounding cultures and landscapes.
We looked for emotion: As in, places that stirred within this grizzled group of hotel veterans the most awe or delight or satisfaction at having seen something we’d never seen done quite the same way before.

We looked and we looked and we were left with the hotels below. You’ve seen the Europe winners and the North America winners. Here now, the winners for the rest of the world. We hope you enjoy.

Maison Brummell Majorelle

Marrakech, Morocco

Like the century-old Majorelle Gardens this neighborhood is known for, the eight-room Maison Brummell Majorelle’s is a bold tribute to Moroccan style, featuring a mix of Arab architectural elements, Moorish archways, and local artisan traditions. It rises up behind terrazzo walls like a modernist sandcastle, its interiors spare and sculptural with smooth stone flooring, tadelakt walls, Italian-made suspension lamps, brass details, and designer furnishings.

Barracuda Hotel & Villas

Itacaré, Brazil

There aren’t many high-end hotels in the far-flung surfers’ enclave of Itacaré, but Barracuda offers a sophisticated alternative to the region’s traditional inns. The atmosphere and aesthetics bring together laid-back Bahian charm and Scandinavian minimalism in an authentic way — the original owners are Brazilian and Swedish — with 17 suites of clean architectural lines, polished concrete floors, wood-paneled ceilings, and furnishings built by local carpenters.

Lovango Resort and Beach Club

Cruz Bay, US Virgin Islands

The newest generation of Caribbean resorts has learned the lessons of the boutique-hotel age; the best of them are more intimate, more full of character, and more sustainable than ever before. This is certainly true of Lovango Resort, set on the eponymous Lovango Cay, just off the coast of St. John. It’s unpretentiously stylish, tastefully luxe, and perfectly laid-back, and showcases a wild side of the Caribbean that’s increasingly hard to find.

Azumi Setoda

Onomichi, Japan

Azumi Setoda, located on the remote island of Ikuchijima, is the first property in the new Azumi line from Adrian Zecha, founder of Aman Resorts. Zecha chose to revitalize a 140-year-old estate long owned by a prominent merchant family. The Kyoto-based architect Shiro Miura handled the restoration with an eye to creating calm, light-filled guest rooms as well as appealing shared spaces. The result is a boutique ryokan with many perfectly executed elements.

Cap Karoso

Ate Dalo, Indonesia

In some ways the Indonesian island of Sumba feels like turning back the clock — compared to Bali, this island paradise is hardly developed at all. It’s an ideal setting for Cap Karoso, where modernist architecture sets a stylish tone, and is harmoniously contrasted with indigenous Sumbanese design and construction. The whole operation respectfully blends an international sensibility and a strong contemporary design sense with local crafts, culture, and excursions.

Wildlife Retreat at Taronga

Mosman, Australia

The idea of a zoo hotel — not located near a zoo, but actually on the grounds of one — is something of a novelty. It’s particularly noteworthy when the zoo in question is considered one of the best in the world. The Wildlife Retreat at Taronga is located inside Taronga Zoo Sydney, and when front desk staff mention that it’s possible to wake up to a kangaroo hopping by or a koala clinging to a tree outside your window, they’re not exaggerating.

La Fiermontina Ocean

Larache, Morocco

Following the success of La Fiermontina, a gem of a boutique hotel in Lecce, Italy, the owners opened a second hotel in Paris. La Fiermontina Ocean, on Morocco’s northern shore, is the third of the collection. Like the original, it has an elegant, worldly air inspired by the short but romantic life of Antonia Fiermonte, a painter and musician who modeled at Villa Medici, regularly attended Parisian salons, and traveled extensively in Morocco.

Puqio

Arequipa, Peru

For a destination that attracts so many outdoor adventurers, Peru was a late adopter of the luxury camping trend. But Puqio, the first tented camp in the country, doesn’t disappoint — in fact, it’s quickly become one of the most buzzed-about places to stay in the Colca Valley. The hotel centers around a cozy, light-filled lodge, while accommodations are in canvas tents or round adobe cottages, all featuring wood-burning stoves, heated walls, and private terraces.

JOALI Maldives

Muravandhoo Island, Maldives

The secluded Muravandhoo Island is home to JOALI Maldives, billed as the archipelago’s first art-immersive resort — and indeed, it’s art and design that separate this hotel from its rivals. Art installations and interactive exhibits are everywhere, an artist-in-residence runs creative workshops, and one-of-a-kind artworks are displayed in the resort’s sophisticated over-water bungalows and thatched-roof beach villas. The indoor-outdoor design is striking.

Villa Tokay

Gili Air, Indonesia

Villa Tokay is an eco-friendly, design-forward hotel tucked away on a lushly landscaped coastal property on the island of Gili Air. Each villa is a one-of-a-kind example of local craftsmanship and indoor-outdoor architecture. Bamboo takes the starring role: both practical and decorative, it’s used as the primary material for the villas’ sweeping staircases and high, curving ceilings, and it’s bundled together to form soaring pillars that support lofted sleeping areas.

Rajmahal Palace

Jaipur, India

Rajmahal Palace is owned by the royal family of Jaipur, and counts among its past guests Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. While this Rajasthani palace is grand in a traditional way, the otherworldly interior design — rich with whimsical details, symmetrical shapes, and bold pops of color — looks as meticulously composed as a Wes Anderson film. It comes by its historical character honestly — that’s the royal family’s own classic Ford Thunderbird out front.

Rosa Malacca

Melaka, Malaysia

With its brownstone facade and industrial-chic interiors, Rosa Malacca looks more New York than Kuala Lumpur. Somehow, the aesthetic doesn’t seem entirely out of place, given that the city itself, Melaka — once a major international trading center, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — has long been a cultural melting pot. Why not a boutique hotel reminiscent of a Brooklyn loft, built with clay bricks and recycled wood, with the beams and ductwork exposed?

The Shinmonzen

Kyoto, Japan

Tucked away between an art gallery and an antique shop in Kyoto’s historic Gion district, the Shinmonzen looks relatively unassuming. The neat timber exterior resembles that of any other ryokan, but inside, this nine-suite boutique hotel is one of a kind. The Shinmonzen is a project by Tadao Ando, arguably the country’s most eminent architect — and this exquisitely designed hotel is his creative vision, at once nostalgic and futuristic, brought to life.

The Tower Hotel

Nagoya, Japan

Nagoya’s 1954-vintage television tower is a local landmark, and now it’s also something else: the Tower Hotel is built entirely in and around the tower’s structure — literally. The iron support beams cut diagonally through the walls, floors, and ceilings of the rooms. The unobstructed views, naturally, are unique, given the broadcasting tower’s position at the heart of Central Park, and the interiors combine eye-catching design with plentiful modern Japanese art.

Noku Phuket

Phuket, Thailand

It takes something special to stand out among Phuket’s crop of luxury boutique hotels. Part of what sets Noku Phuket quite literally apart from the competition is its inland setting, on a hilltop overlooking Chalong Bay. It gives up direct beach access for a unique elevated infinity pool, as well as a number of private pools attached to the larger units. And for many guests — think of Ubud in Bali — the forest is a fine substitute for a view of the sea.