Classic Elegance Meets iPod Chic

There's a new kind of hotel emerging in London's trendiest spots, such as the Bayswater area. It?s popularly known as the "Art Hotel" - unique, stylish hotels with "designer" interiors and a focus on art and artists. It's a definite break from the more traditional London hotels, with their identical rooms and decidedly formal decor, and has evolved from the boutique hotel trend, offering personalised accommodation and services in a characterful environment.

The "Art Hotel" is a reflection of the tastes of the young, contemporary traveller for whom an unusual, distinctly designed hotel holds much more appeal than the formalities and dry stuffiness of traditional hotels or the bland sameness of a branded chain.

Consider, as an example, the eclectic blend of styles and influences at St. Martins Lane, a hotel in central London that bills itself as "a dramatic and daring reinvention of the urban resort". Designed by Philippe Starck, St. Martins Lane demonstrates the boldness and vitality of the "Art Hotel" with its distinctive multicoloured windows and a focus on atmospheric lighting in the famous Light Bar. The Conrad hotels are another example, stepping away from tradition to provide a home from home for young travellers, and encouraging individuality. The "Art Hotel" is part of a modern day trend towards providing spaces where people can be themselves, and modern art is becoming a bigger and bigger feature of this trend.

The ?Art Hotel? concept rejects the bland, uninteresting interiors of traditional hotels, and abandons the usual mood-music of insipid still-life paintings and inoffensive but dull oil paintings on the walls of rooms and lobbies. Instead, it revolutionises hotel decors, noting the discerning artistic tastes of the younger clientele and contemporary business travellers, and makes art a key feature of its establishment.

The St Martins Lane Light Bar comes close to this, with its portraits of people making silly faces: Unusual, different, intriguing. But the Guest Hotels group of hotels has fully embraced the full concept of an Art Hotel, where even controversial works are featured, and are popular with the modern art-savvy traveller. No mood-music here. Common areas are used as exhibition spaces, there are specially commissioned artist-designed rooms, and hotels often offer their guests VIP access to museums and art galleries.

There's a new and exciting twist in the "Art Hotel" niche. Art is becoming a bigger and bigger feature of these spaces, drawing in appreciative business travellers in the media world, who demand individuality and style. One Bayswater hotel, The Jones, is part of the Guest Hotels group of hotels which has its very own curator in order to give guests the ultimate cultural experience. Rather than having a fixed decor that incorporates a collection of pictures, the paintings on the walls change regularly just as they would in any curated art environment.
This type of hotel is a strong advocate of the arts culture, introducing travellers to proper art exhibitions and even - in the case of The Jones - including an authentic in-house theatre. It's something of an added bonus that you can actually stay there, too! The theatre at The Jones is often known as Lillie?s Theatre, since it was where Lillie Langtry (famously the mistress of Edward VII) used to perform. It holds nightly performances in a cabaret style ? following London's long hotel tradition ? but performers and acts are all cutting edge contemporary creatives, including DJs, comedians, artists, writers and performers.

The Jones also runs an artist in residence programme, making the hotel both a venue for creative performances, and a second home for artists and their friends. Guests are also given complementary membership of the hotel's own arts club, "Concierge Club". It's an exciting new development in the "Art Hotel" trend. These sorts of hotels reflect the tastes and work environments of today's younger travellers, both business and leisure; a new hotel environment to complement London's thriving arts culture. And of course, any hotel boasting such a radical new style is guaranteed to provide all the modern conveniences that their clientele will expect.

In Bayswater hotels like The Jones, for example, free Wifi is standard, and features like iPod docking stations and Plasma TVs in rooms are popular with guests. The restaurant at The Jones is a classy French brasserie - high cuisine being another identifying characteristic of the sophisticated "Art Hotel" niche.

London city centre hotels, particularly in busy, vibrant areas like Bayswater, are always popular with international travellers, partly because of their central location (and the convenience provided by the excellent public transport links to all of London's major attractions), partly because of the close proximity of fashionable districts like Mayfair and Kensington, and partly because they promise all the technological comforts of home. Now, however, it seems that the appeal of these central London hotels has increased even more to the more discerning traveller, offering an exciting curated cultural experience as part of a full London package.