{"id":105879,"date":"2025-12-23T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/?p=105879"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:22:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:22:42","slug":"the-originals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/2025\/12\/the-originals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Originals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Chateau
Chateau Marmont \u2014 West Hollywood, CA, USA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we put a bow on our 25th year in business, we take a look back at some of the best hotels from our 1st year in business.<\/h4>\n

Skip down to the hotels<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Tablet launched in 2000, the hotel industry looked a lot different than it does today. Not only were we the first boutique hotel curators, boutique hotels themselves were a novelty, just starting on their journey from the fringe to the mainstream. There were nearly 2.5 billion fewer people on earth, and seemingly the same number fewer hotels worth getting excited about.<\/p>\n

We witnessed incredible change over the next quarter century, as boutique hotels influenced every aspect of hospitality and instigated a full-scale reimagining of what a hotel should be. Standards were raised across the board, and character became just as important as the number of amenities available. Finally, you could pick hotels to match your personality.<\/p>\n

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Back to 2000 and the list below: Tablet came online with hundreds of hotels to choose from. Most of the first boutique hotels were accounted for, as were many of the world’s grand dames, luxe resorts, and historic inns. Unlike now, there wasn’t much else in between except the kinds of chain hotels you don’t expect to see from us (but even those have massively stepped up their game).<\/p>\n

There are so many great accommodation options these days, with no end in sight to the growth. As a result, a lot more work is required to identify which are truly extraordinary and deserving of being in our selection. It’s not work when you love your job, though. And we love our jobs. We’re grateful to have played our small role in the boutique hotel revolution, and to have brought together so many wonderful establishments and guests.<\/p>\n

2025 was an unforgettable year for us. We hope it was for you as well. Wishing you peace, joy, and untroubled travels this holiday season \u2014 from all of us here at Tablet.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

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Strawberry Hill<\/a><\/h2>\n
Irish Town, Jamaica<\/h5>\n

\"Strawberry<\/a><\/p>\n

The rooms and bungalows at Strawberry Hill are built to meticulous nineteenth-century specifications. You sleep in mahogany four-poster beds shrouded in muslin, and gaze out at the stunning mountain landscape while swinging in your hammock. It was created by Chris Blackwell as a salon for friends like Bob Marley and the Rolling Stones, so, continuing in the tradition, guests are encouraged to mingle, debate, and jam.<\/p>\n

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Copacabana Palace<\/a><\/h2>\n
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil<\/h5>\n

\"Copacabana<\/a><\/p>\n

The Belmond Copacabana Palace is still the place to live the fantasy of the Rio of decades gone by. Built in 1923, at the birth of the Jazz Age, this gleaming white edifice towers over Copacabana Beach, patterned after a couple of other classic seaside hotels, the Negresco in Nice and the Carlton in Cannes. Copacabana Beach is the kind of place you have to see before you die \u2014 why not do it in high style?<\/p>\n

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The Mercer<\/a><\/h2>\n
New York City, NY, USA<\/h5>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The first SoHo loft hotel is still the definitive entry in the genre. This 19th-century Romanesque Revival building was filled with artists\u2019 lofts during the neighborhood\u2019s postwar heyday, and its late-\u201990s renovation at the hands of superstar interior designer Christian Liaigre transformed it into one of the best of the first generation of boutique hotels. <\/p>\n

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Splendido<\/a><\/h2>\n
Portofino, Italy<\/h5>\n

\"Splendido\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Safe to say this one lives up to its name. Splendido, a Belmond Hotel, is a Ligurian classic, and a longtime favorite among Italian grand hotels \u2014 Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor was the first person to sign the guest book in 1901. Today it\u2019s as fine as it ever was, subtly modernized and continually updated, but always true to the historical spirit of the original Splendido.<\/p>\n

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Park Hyatt Tokyo<\/a><\/h2>\n
Tokyo, Japan<\/h5>\n

\"Park<\/a><\/p>\n

Even before its star turn in 2003\u2019s Lost in Translation<\/em>, Park Hyatt Tokyo was well known as one of the first proper luxury hotels to truly embrace contemporary design. A 2025 renovation by Paris-based Studio Jouin Manku\u2019s has it back at the top of the modern luxury-hotel game. It\u2019s also literally at the top of the 52-story Shinjuku Park Tower, a position that lends it extraordinary views of Tokyo. <\/p>\n

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Fairmont Le Ch\u00e2teau Frontenac<\/a><\/h2>\n
Quebec City, Canada<\/h5>\n

\"Fairmont<\/a><\/p>\n

The grand dame of the Canadian railway hotels, Ch\u00e2teau Frontenac is Qu\u00e9bec City\u2019s most famous landmark, a century-old castle high on a bluff over the St. Lawrence river; towering above the city\u2019s Vieux Qu\u00e9bec historic district. It’s a tourist attraction in its own right, and there\u2019s nothing subtle about it \u2014 past the sightseers in the lobby is a vast and labyrinthine hotel of some six hundred rooms across six wings.<\/p>\n

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Chateau Marmont<\/a><\/h2>\n
West Hollywood, CA, USA<\/h5>\n

\"Chateau<\/a><\/p>\n

What needs to be said about Chateau Marmont at this point, a hotel that\u2019s cooler than all of us put together? Built in 1929 to mimic the Chateau D\u2019Amboise, a castle in France\u2019s Loire Valley, its French late Gothic Flamboyant style includes fluted pillars, vaulted ceilings, and the perfect amount of heavy, dark wood. The drama of the building more than matches the drama that has taken place within its walls.<\/p>\n

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La Mamounia<\/a><\/h2>\n
Marrakech, Morocco<\/h5>\n

\"La<\/a><\/p>\n

La Mamounia is pure fantasy: huge, bright, and excessive, a glittering combination of the Art Deco and Moroccan traditions with mosaics, painted columns, and gleaming marble floors. Turbaned waiters, belly dancers, and doormen wearing fezes greet a new celebrity set that includes the Clintons, Naomi Campbell and Tom Cruise. There are five restaurants, a spa, and a casino, and rooms modeled after railway carriages and ocean liners.<\/p>\n

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Claridge’s<\/a><\/h2>\n
London, UK<\/h5>\n

\"Claridge's\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Claridge\u2019s is by any lights one of the best hotels in London, and it\u2019s almost certainly the poshest. Even today, this Mayfair landmark \u2014 where the crowned heads of Europe came to wait out the Second World War \u2014 remains splendidly and timelessly Art Deco. Stroll past the black awning into an entry foyer with Lalique vases, gilded columns, a sweeping staircase ornamented with brass banister that is polished daily.<\/p>\n

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Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi<\/a><\/h2>\n
Santa Fe, NM, USA<\/h5>\n

\"Rosewood<\/a><\/p>\n

Inn of the Anasazi \u2014 named for the ancient civilization that built the region\u2019s distinctive cliff dwellings \u2014 offers an unusually authentic and culturally sensitive New Mexican experience. The interiors are antique in style, and the work of New Mexican and Native American artists and craftspeople is featured prominently throughout. It’s also just about as central as a Santa Fe hotel can get, just steps from the Plaza.<\/p>\n

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Ch\u00e2teau de la Ch\u00e8vre d’Or<\/a><\/h2>\n
\u00c8ze, France<\/h5>\n

\"Ch\u00e2teau<\/a><\/p>\n

The medieval village of Eze is one of the most amazing places on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, offering spectacular sweeping ocean views that simply can\u2019t be matched from any lower elevation. Here, Ch\u00e2teau de la Ch\u00e8vre d\u2019Or began its life as a private residence, and as it\u2019s grown, many of the surrounding houses have been absorbed into the hotel. As a result the 45 rooms and suites are scattered throughout the village.<\/p>\n

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Claris Hotel & Spa GL<\/a><\/h2>\n
Barcelona, Spain<\/h5>\n

\"Claris<\/a><\/p>\n

Only in architecturally adventurous Barcelona would one find a downtown grand hotel in a style like this; Claris Hotel & Spa GL is a postmodern m\u00e9lange of the modern and the classic. Obviously anything but your typical chain hotel, the Claris is owned by the art collector Jordi Clos, who has outfitted the hotel\u2019s first floor with a collection of pre-Columbian artworks, and placed Egyptian carvings, Turkish kilims and Hindu sculptures in the guest rooms.<\/p>\n

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The Clarence<\/a><\/h2>\n
Dublin, Ireland<\/h5>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get the obvious out of the way: yes, the Clarence is owned by Bono and the Edge, of U2 fame. And yes, the Clarence is more or less the official stopover for actors, musicians and the like \u2014 but we\u2019d argue that this has little to do with the owners\u2019 marquee value, and everything to do with the fact that, at bottom, it\u2019s simply a well-designed and thoughtfully conceived hotel.<\/p>\n

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The Sukhothai Bangkok<\/a><\/h2>\n
Bangkok, Thailand<\/h5>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of Asia\u2019s grand hotels are ostentatious skyscrapers, but the Sukhothai breaks the mold \u2014 this low-slung and labyrinthine complex, designed by Ed Tuttle (of Aman fame) sprawls over six acres, and functions as an island of calm amidst the bustle of that other City of Angels. Gardens, courtyards and lotus pools await around every corner, and the restaurant floats on a man-made lake.<\/p>\n

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Establishment Hotel<\/a><\/h2>\n
Sydney, Australia<\/h5>\n

\"Establishment<\/a><\/p>\n

The Establishment Hotel is near-perfect, a thirty-one-room boutique that, as they say, does exactly what it says on the tin; offers chic and comfortable lodging in a convenient city location, and attracts the town’s best and brightest young things to its bars and restaurants. Rooms are either strikingly Japanese, with black floorboards and loft-style timbered ceilings, with dashes of vivid color, or soothingly international.<\/p>\n

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Hotel Goldener Hirsch<\/a><\/h2>\n
Salzburg, Austria<\/h5>\n

\"Hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

Hotel Goldener Hirsch has existed in one form or another since 1407, the year of the first mention in the city\u2019s archives of an inn on this spot in Salzburg\u2019s Old Town, just down the road from the birthplace of Mozart. Its present incarnation dates back to 1948, and is today a delightful trip backwards through time, decorated in decades-old antiques, designed more in the style of a rustic lodge than a baroque palace.<\/p>\n

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