Forget the carbon-copied interiors of international hospitality chains; New York’s most well-dressed hotels prioritize one-off objects, sumptuous fabrics, and even simplicity in their designs. From a historic flight terminal-turned-lobby where Jet Age optimism is almost tangible, to a Bowery lodging where minimalism sets the tone, we’ve rounded up 12 New York hotels with interiors that set them apart from the pack.
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New York City’s best hotels for design lovers
These chic New York hotels are a cut above the cookie-cutter international chains

The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel
The landmarked Victorian-era Temple Court has been brought back to life as The Beekman, where a soaring nine-story atrium stuns with its intricate decorative railings and grand proportions. The 1881 building emerged as the 287-room hotel in 2016 after a thorough restoration and renovation by Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel. Common spaces are more like cozy fireside lounges than swanky New York accommodations thanks to Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, while guest rooms are done up in jewel tones that make an extra splash in the building’s two turret penthouses, which go from $6,500/night.
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Crosby Street Hotel
London boutique hospitality group Firmdale is behind Soho’s perennially trendy Crosby Street Hotel. The 86-key lodging, designed by Stonehill Taylor, puts on display all of the quirky London style co-owner and creative director Kit Kemp is known for. A spectrum of paint colors is matched with playful fabrics and finished off with a collection of contemporary art. (Firmdale’s Instagram is a good introduction to Kemp’s delightfully offbeat style.) Pro tip: The hotel’s matchbook is among the best-looking in New York; grab one when passing through the Crosby Bar, adjacent to the lobby. Stays here start at $695/night for a double room.
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Sister City
Fans of minimalism will find comfort in this 200-room hotel from Atelier Ace whose aesthetic is “inspired by the functional perfection of Finnish saunas, Japanese bento boxes, rock-cut cliff dwellings of prehistory and John Cage’s ‘4’33,’” per its website. Here, materials like terrazzo and Italian cherry-wood are paired with objets d’art like Noguchi lanterns and fixtures inspired by the Less, But Better philosophy of industrial designer Dieter Rams. The hotel also attempts to minimize unwanted interactions behind its Bowery facade: Check-in kiosks allow guests to bypass the ritual of a traditional front desk arrival, all to tunes created for the hotel by musician Julianna Barwick. For such intentional isolation, rooms start at $209/night.
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PUBLIC Hotel
Hotelier Ian Schrager has waxed poetic, in multitudes, about the style of his Lower East Side PUBLIC Hotel. “It’s not shabby chic, retro, industrial, reclaimed or the ubiquitous Brooklyn look … it’s simplicity as the ultimate sophistication,” Schrager says of the 367-key hotel, which opened in 2017. The Herzog & de Meuron-designed building sports Instagram trap interiors (can you even count the number of times you’ve seen the aggressively mirrored entry escalators?) by Schrager’s in-house design team, with sleek and efficient bedrooms that have drawn comparisons to yacht cabins. The hotel bills itself as providing “luxury for all,” with rooms starting at $150/night.
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Gramercy Park Hotel
The 190-key Gramercy Park Hotel calls its sumptuous interior style “Renaissance revival-flair,” which comes through in the abundant use of velvet, refined millwork, and crystal chandeliers. Guest rooms, which go from $329/night, sport splashes of saturated jewel tones and custom-designed furnishings like leather-topped desks. But it’s the public bars that this Gramercy haunt is known for. Rose Bar attracts posh nightlife aficionados with its live music and moody atmosphere; the space is done up in custom furnishings by artist Julian Schnabel and a rotating display of art from the likes of Marilyn Minter and David LaChapelle.
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Freehand New York
Freehand New York is housed in the former George Washington Hotel, where artists of note (including Keith Haring and Dee Dee Ramone) are rumored to have stayed. The team behind the 395-key hotel aims to bring that artistic ethos back by showcasing works from up-and-comers through its residency and commissioning program with Bard College. The hotel’s interiors, designed by Roman and Williams, create a background for that rotating art with colorful textiles, custom fixtures, and restored millwork throughout the circa-1928 building.
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The NoMad Hotel
Interior designer Jacques Garcia drew on the Parisian flats of his youth when designing the NoMad. That inspiration comes through clearly in the hotel’s residential-feeling guest rooms, many of which feature clawfoot tubs within eyeshot of the bed and one-off objects like handmade vintage Heriz rugs and Portrait de Villes photographs. The 168-room lodging is housed in a revived Beaux Arts building, updated by Stonehill Taylor, that lends its resplendent architecture to the hotel’s common spaces, for which guests will pay a pretty penny. Stays here start at $450/night.
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Ace Hotel
The convivial atmosphere of the Ace Hotel’s lobby bar (as well as its free Wi-Fi) has made it a bustling destination for hotel guests as well as a hive for local creative activity. The low-lit room emits an effortlessly cool vibe in thanks to interior design team Roman and Williams, who endowed the space with simple fabrics, eye-catching Americana, and patinated furniture that compliment the hotel’s historic structure revived by Stonehill Taylor. Its 258 guest rooms are slightly more simple, with straightforward wood and pipe furnishings. Room rates start at $179/night in New York’s quieter seasons.
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Wythe Hotel
The originator of Williamsburg’s boutique hotel boom, the Wythe has been luring guests with its rooftop bar Lemon’s (formerly The Ides) and 70 industrial-inspired guest rooms since 2012. The hotel occupies a 1901-built barrel factory, and its interior architecture and design nods to that industrial past with radiant heated concrete floors and original 13-foot timber ceilings throughout its guest rooms, where stays start at $300/night.
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The Hoxton, Williamsburg
The Hoxton chain’s first ground-up New York hotel opened in September 2018 on a former industrial site on Williamsburg’s Wythe Avenue. The locale’s past as the Rosenwach Water Tower Company factory gets its due in the building’s interior design by Ennismore Design Studio and Soho House, including two custom wooden water towers in the hotel’s mezzanine restaurant Backyard, as well as more straightforward nods through industrial-style architectural finishes. The 175-key hotel’s Brooklyn presence is also teased through the hotel’s finishes like bed sheets by Brooklyn-based Dusen Dusen and antiques and decor sourced from nearby stores including I Like Mike’s and Horseman Antiques. For a stay here, expect to lay out at least $159/night.
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1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge
This 10-story eco-friendly hotel nestled in Brooklyn Bridge Park takes its design cues from the surrounding landscape (both natural and man-made.) INC Architecture & Design is responsible for the interiors, including the highly Instagrammable lobby. Reclaimed materials from local spots dot the 195-key hotel; keep an eye out for the original heart pine beams from the Domino Sugar Refinery and walnut from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Of course, the hotel’s unobstructed views of the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan skyline are as much a design factor as its raw concrete pillars and other earthy elements. Guest rooms overlooking the bridge and skyline go from $899/night, while views onto neighboring Dumbo will set guests back from $349/night.
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TWA Hotel
Eero Saarinen’s architectural ode to the Jet Age reopened to the public in 2019 after a few false starts in its transformation into the TWA Hotel. The circa-1962 terminal was completely restored under the eye of Richard Southwick of historic preservation firm Beyer Blinder Belle, and is as spectacular as ever. Its Sunken Lounge, once a waiting area for flyers, still stuns in Saarinen’s chili pepper red scheme and now serves as a 1960s-themed watering hole. The hotel’s 512 guest rooms, spread between two new towers by Lubrano Ciavarra Architects, were done up in a midcentury modern style by Stonehill Taylor and include themely touches like martini stations and vintage rotary phones. Rooms go from $249/night.
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