Gabe Weisert March 21, 2007

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Luscious Lobbies & Savory Suites

To compile a list of sexy hotels, Forbes Traveler consulted the people who know best — hotel designers.

We queried the principals of several leading hospitality design firms, including BraytonHughes (Four Seasons in Costa Rica, Jackson Hole, and Whistler), Wilson Associates (Little Dix Bay Villas, Las Ventanas al Paraiso), and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (Hotel Bora Bora, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur, the Lodge at Rancho Mirage). The only catch was that they couldn’t nominate their own hotels.

What defines “sexy” to a hotel designer? Chris Keller, Design Director of Gettys (Conrad Miami, Hotel Plaza Athenee), sums it up thusly: “First, the property has to withstand the concept of ‘trendy.’ Timelessness translates into integrity, which is extremely sexy. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the hotel has to focus attention on the guest. Nothing is sexier than a true, defined and integral sense of self.”

See our slideshow of the sexiest hotels in the U.S.

In other words, the simple act of being in an aesthetically pleasing environment tends to enhance your self-image. Just flipping through a newspaper in the lobby of the Setai, for example, or strolling the historic gardens of the Hotel Bel-Air makes you feel part of a mysterious, thrilling world. You belong in this exotic world and this world belongs to you — you feel sexy.

All of our award-winning experts were enthusiastic and effusive, and notably gracious towards their ostensible competition — there were a lot of exclamation marks involved. Some even paid each other direct compliments: Richard Brayton Of BraytonHughes nominated the Inn of Anasazi, which was designed by another one of our panelists, Wilson Associates. And their selections were as eclectic as their backgrounds.

See our slideshow of the sexiest hotels in the U.S.

Some chose urban boutiques like the Chambers in New York or the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica, while others favored more lofty escapes like the Hotel Hana Maui or the Post Ranch Inn. The Hotel Rouge in D.C. won marks for shaking up a relatively staid hotel town, while the Bel-Air got the nod for its recent $20 million renovation. And few probably benefited from novelty and buzz, like the redesigned Gramercy Park Hotel in New York and the new St. Regis in San Francisco.

Though if we had to pick a front-runner, it would be The Setai in Miami, which was independently nominated by several of our experts. After a $200 million renovation, the former Dempsey Vanderbilt Hotel in South Beach inspires uniformly rave reviews from the hospitality design profession. More...

See our slideshow of the sexiest hotels in the U.S.

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