Six houses where the fitting out, the collection or the fabric of the building is the reason to look closely. Two stand in Sweden, two in Italy, one in Hong Kong and one in Amsterdam. Each entry describes the building and its common rooms as they are published, without comparing one house against another.
Hotel Pigalle keeps an older block in the middle of Gothenburg, a few streets from the canal and from the central station. The house was fitted out as a hotel to a single scheme rather than assembled from stock, and those fittings are the reason it is grouped here. The entrance is taken from the street, with the bedrooms on the floors above it.
Public rooms sit on the lower levels: a restaurant, a bar and a small sitting room, furnished in heavy fabrics and dark timber. Bedrooms differ from one another in plan, as an older frame allows, and the uppermost ones look over the roofs of the centre. Lighting is kept low through the public parts.
Ask which floor a room stands on, since the outlook and the stair change with height. It is also worth asking about the hours of the restaurant and the bar, and whether the uppermost rooms are open on your dates.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationGothenburg, Sweden
CheckedSeptember 2026
Hotel Skeppsholmen
Stockholm, Sweden
Hotel Skeppsholmen sits on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, in buildings raised in the seventeenth century for the navy. The rows were put to other uses over time and later fitted out as a hotel, and the long low form of the barracks was kept. Museums and the water are a few minutes away on foot from the door.
Bedrooms line the old corridors and vary with the frame of the building, some of them low under the eaves. The public parts hold a restaurant, a bar and a yard between the wings. Furnishing is plain and modern against the old walls, and the island keeps the house quieter than the streets across the water.
Ask about room plans before booking, because the historic frame makes them uneven. Also worth settling: how the island is reached on foot or by boat, restaurant hours in the quiet months, and whether luggage can be left after checkout.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationSkeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden
CheckedSeptember 2026
Chapter Roma
Rome, Italy
Chapter Roma stands in Regola, the quarter between Campo de' Fiori and the river, on a narrow street of ordinary Roman houses. The hotel keeps work by living artists in its common parts, and that is why it is grouped here rather than for the fabric of the building. The entrance leads straight into the rooms on the ground level.
The entrance level holds a bar and a dining room used by guests and by people from the quarter alike. Bedrooms above are modest in size and modern in fitting, with the older shell left visible in places. The work on the walls is changed from season to season, so no two visits are quite alike.
Ask whether the common rooms are open to non-residents on your dates, as this changes with the season. It is also worth asking which bedrooms face the street, since the quarter stays busy well into the evening. Luggage can be raised beforehand by email.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationRegola, Rome, Italy
CheckedSeptember 2026
Villa Franceschi
Mira, Veneto, Italy
Villa Franceschi stands at Mira on the Brenta, on the old water route between Venice and Padua. It belongs to the line of villas that Venetian families built along the canal, and the house keeps its garden and its formal front toward the water. Mira lies outside Venice, and the villa is reached by road or along the canal itself.
The main house holds the dining room and the sitting rooms, with worked ceilings kept where they survive. Bedrooms are divided between the villa and a lower building in the garden. There is a terrace where meals are served in the warm months, and the garden runs back from the front of the house.
Ask whether your room is in the villa itself or in the garden building, since the two differ. Worth settling as well: whether the restaurant is open on the evening you arrive, and how the house is reached from Venice without a car.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationMira, Veneto, Italy
CheckedSeptember 2026
The Fleming
Hong Kong
The Fleming stands on a side street in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island, a short walk from the harbour front. Its interiors were made to draw on the fittings of the harbour ferries, in metal, green paint and ribbed glass. That scheme is the reason the house is grouped here. The bedrooms sit above a narrow lobby at street level.
The lower floor holds the lobby and a restaurant, with the same detailing carried through both. Bedrooms are compact, as the site allows, and fitted with built-in timber and metal. The house stands among older buildings of the quarter, with the tram line a street away and the harbour a few minutes beyond it.
Ask which side a room faces, because the streets here sit close together and stay busy. It is also worth asking about the restaurant hours, luggage storage on the day of departure, and the walking route from the nearest station.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationWan Chai, Hong Kong
CheckedSeptember 2026
Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam keeps the Scheepvaarthuis, a brick office building of 1916 on the Prins Hendrikkade, close to the eastern docks. The house is one of the first works of the Amsterdam School and carries carved stone, ironwork and stained glass across its front and its stairs. It was converted to a hotel and its protected fabric was kept.
Inside, the stair halls, the leaded windows and the timber joinery survive from the original fitting. The public parts hold a restaurant, a bar and a bathing floor with a pool below street level. Bedrooms are set in the old office wings and vary in plan and in height, following the frame of the building.
Ask which wing a room stands in, since the plan of the old offices makes them uneven. Worth settling as well: the hours of the bathing floor, whether the historic rooms can be seen by guests, and parking in the quarter.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationPrins Hendrikkade, Amsterdam, Netherlands
CheckedSeptember 2026
This reference is independent of every house named on it and takes no part in bookings. Interiors, collections and restaurant hours change, and older buildings are altered as they are repaired. Treat what is written here as a starting point and settle the details with the house directly before you travel.
