This story is part of The Journey Awards 2026, covering the best in hotels, airlines, destinations and travel products. Find the full awards here.
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We live in a world of cookie-cutter hotels. These properties are designed in a turnkey style, ready to be deployed into any city at a moment’s notice. If you never looked out your window, you would have no idea where you were. So what’s the point?
Thankfully there are exceptions to what feels like the new rule — standout properties that display an unmistakable flair. At the top of our list is Firmdale Hotels, our winner for this year’s best art and design program. The hotel group includes 11 properties across London and New York, stretching across the pond from one SoHo to another.
The NYC lineup includes a trio of boutique hotels that act like an “if you know, you know” lottery ticket for visitors to the city and staycationers alike: SoHo’s Crosby Street Hotel, The Whitby Hotel in Midtown, and the newest addition, Warren Street Hotel, which opened in 2024 in Tribeca.
Firmdale’s distinctive design comes from tastemaker Kit Kemp, who co-founded the hotel group with her husband Tim in 1985. She serves as its creative director, as well as the head of her eponymous Kit Kemp Design Studio.
“I have five Cs at the core of my aesthetic: color, craft, character, comfort and curation,” Kemp says. In her world, color provides a dose of happiness and levity to any space. Craft is an appreciation for the handmade and artisanal, and curating such items together is an essential way to provide rich detail. Character indicates that every room should tell a story, and comfort speaks for itself in terms of what hotels should provide for their guests.
“Across all 11 hotels in London and New York, you’ll see layered textiles, handmade pieces and thoughtful details giving each property its own individuality,” Kemp says, “while that quiet thread of color, craft and curation ties them together.”
Her eclectic taste leaves rooms and public spaces filled to the brim with myriad textures and patterns, bright colors, showpiece art displays, and funny and quirky gestures galore. “Since I was young — rummaging through my mother’s drawers of fabric remnants — I’ve been drawn to textiles, color and things made by hand with real integrity,” Kemp says. “That instinct has never left me, and it’s why our hotels look the way they do.”
Firmdale wields a mastery of its particular perspective, allowing it to tweak the concept from one hotel to the next while staying true to its overarching inspiration and ideals. There must be a tremendous energy expended on fine-tuning the design of each property, yet it’s within a defined system of sorts. Kemp has set up a creative blueprint that leaves a lasting, memorable brand impression and can be replicated into the opening of additional properties, even if painstakingly so.
The colors of a given room or suite may vary, but expect a palette of bright hues and a playful look and feel, offset by opulent white marble bathrooms with freestanding soaking tubs. Rooms may showcase hidden minibars, large wooden hutches, fine China teacups and drinkware, and, where possible, features such as garden terraces or balconies. Yes, in Manhattan.
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Kemp’s style showcases intricate, creative layering. Rooms are worlds unto themselves where colorful pillows and headboards work alongside bold furniture pieces and framed artwork. Lobbies double as contemporary art galleries, worthy of lingering over rather than strolling past, while private drawing rooms are akin to residential parlors, replete with cozy couches and loaded honesty bars. Restaurants feature strong cocktail programs, and there’s always a full English on the breakfast menu. For those who know the brand, there are expectations to meet, and each property delivers upon them.
The hotels curate and collect their art, they create pieces via Kemp’s studio, and they commission pieces to be purpose-made just for them. “This can take several years to complete, but it gives us time to work together to curate unique spaces,” Kemp says. “Art plays a major role in our work and our love of local craftsmanship makes each hotel individual.”
While each property does indeed stand up on its own, guests will find commonalities from one to another, ranging from design motifs to certain creature comforts and amenities. For instance, guestrooms tend to feature a mannequin, the type of which might be found at a tailor for sizing or to drape an outfit over for sartorial inspiration. It’s become a recognizable component of the brand, and is stylized in such a way that it’s a part of each room’s décor.
“Across our hotels, you’ll notice familiar signatures throughout — oversized sculptural headboards and playful mannequins in the rooms along with floor-to-ceiling windows that flood each of our spaces with natural light,” Kemp says. Her studio even produces much of the fabrics, rugs and furniture. “I love mixing color, pattern and texture with purpose — heavy weaves on chairs and sofas, lighter linens on curtains and cushions — so you’ll see that throughout. Though those design details aren’t applied formulaically; they’re small touches that bring scale, balance and individuality to every room.”
Kemp even produces the hotel’s bathroom toiletries. It’s a full-service operation that leaves no stone unturned in the quest for perfection. “Our bathroom toiletries, RikRak, are important because a room should satisfy all the senses and our sense of smell brings many memories of special moments,” she says. “We spent many hours perfecting our perfumes, and we say ‘perfume is the invisible power of persuasion.’”
There’s no confusing one of Firmdale’s hotels for anything else, and each is as far removed from generic and bland as possible. They are the antidote to the countless corporate hotel chains of the world. “Every detail — from the fabrics and furniture to the art, ceramics, down to the bath products — is both chosen and created with care,” Kemp says. “We champion things made by hand, whether it’s a bespoke lamp, a rug or a piece of local artwork, because those human touches bring warmth, character and a sense of story to our inimitable spaces.”
Consider Firmdale Hotels your new secret weapon, though they might not be so secret much longer.
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