Lobby

The lobby is the hotel's front room, the first place you walk into after the doormen take your bags. It's where check-in happens, where porters bring guests, where you meet friends before going out. In luxury hotels the lobby is treated as a manifesto: the architecture, the smell (Le Labo at Ritz-Carlton, Bottega Veneta at Lutetia), the music playlist, the ceiling height, the artwork, all calibrated for the moment of arrival. Top designers like Yabu Pushelberg, Tara Bernerd, Pierre-Yves Rochon and Jacques Garcia have made their names on iconic hotel lobbies. The Hôtel Costes lobby in Paris, the Park Hyatt Tokyo lobby on the 41st floor, the Ned in London, these are pilgrimage sites for design fans.