The best design hotels in Berlin
An insider's guide to the top design hotels in Berlin, including the best for stylish bedrooms, hip interior design, Michelin-starred restaurants and rooftop bars, in locations including Mitte, west Berlin and Friedrichshain.
Das Stue Hotel
Das Stue’s is located on the south-western edge of Berlin’s largest park, the sprawling Tiergarten. The classically curved main building was constructed in 1938 by German architect Johann Emil Schaudt, and once housed the Danish Embassy. The grand lobby features eye-popping artworks and a gorgeous restored staircase, and leads through to the hotel’s lounge, bar, restaurants and garden terrace. The interiors, by Patricia Urquiola, range from the funky mix of colourful sofas and animal sculptures in the lounge to the more neutral, distinguished tones of the Casual Restaurant. Paco Perez’s Michelin-starred Cinco restaurant is an impressive match of warm contemporary design and high-end food.
Read the full review: Das Stue, Berlin
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25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin
West Berlin’s funky 25hours Hotel Bikini, located in a former 1950s high-rise, has injected some youthful new energy into the area, thanks to the playful interiors of Werner Aisslinger, a buzzy rooftop bar and a high-end retail concept. Retaining just the right amount of original exposed concrete, Aisslinger has otherwise gone wild, dangling Schindelhauer bicycles from the ceiling, plastering the walls with eye-catching slogans, and peppering the public areas with funky furnishings. Choosing a room here largely means choosing a view: ‘Jungle’ rooms have views across the ape and elephant enclosures at the Zoo; ‘Urban’ rooms look over the war-damaged spire of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the City West skyline.
Read the full review: 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin
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Hotel Q! Berlin
This funky, environmentally-friendly hotel, nestled on a quiet, leafy street just off Ku’damm, put City West on the map a decade ago. With its bold colour schemes, youthful staff and audacious bathtub-bed combos in the rooms, it remains a hip escape for design-savvy travellers. The curved front desk, manned by young, black-clad staff set the cool-casual tone, which is maintained throughout the red-themed bar and the dapper rooms. The 77 rooms are an immediately likeable blend of retro-chic design and classy creature comforts. At night, the neighbouring Fox Bar draws a mix of locals and guests with its back-lit recessed walls and slick, curvaceous sofas. There’s also a pavement patio for alfresco summer drinks and people-watching.
Read the full review: Hotel Q! Berlin
Soho House Berlin
Soho House Berlin’s location is very good – a stroll from Alexanderplatz and close to Mitte’s burgeoning boutique and bar scenes. It occupies eight floors of a late Bauhaus building in Mitte. In keeping with Berlin’s penchant for earthy chic, many of the dilapidated concrete walls have been left unfinished, interleaved with expensive original artworks and modernist sculptures. Downstairs you’ll find a library and private cinema. The décor in the bedrooms is aptly decadent, with 300-thread count linens, free-standing bathtubs and rain showers. The Rooftop Bar has city views, a small heated swimming pool and great cocktails and wines.
Read the full review: Soho House Berlin
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nhow Berlin
Architect Sergei Tchoban’s eye-catching building nods to the river embankment's industrial harbour roots with a boxy, warehouse-like structure and upper-floors that cantilever, crane-like, out towards the Spree. The interior, courtesy of New York-based designer Karim Rashid, is a slick riot of curvacious shapes and loud colours; perhaps in keeping with his Pop Art aesthetic. The psychedelic aesthetic continues in the rooms, which come in a range of colours (baby blue, hot pink, muted gray). Fabrics, helmed by native Berliner Patrick Rexhausen, serves up modern interpretations of German-French cuisine in a light pink and lime green interior. The real draw though are the glass exterior walls and large terrace, which ensure stellar views across the river.
Read the full review: nhow Berlin
Lux 11
This collection of 72 self-contained designer apartments, spitting distance from Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower, are spread across a couple of characterful 19th-century houses that were once inhabited by the KGB. What the establishment lacks in public spaces it makes up for with chic-luxe interiors. As the name suggests, the emphasis at Lux 11 is very much on an upscale experience. the apartments feature spacious, open-plan interiors that combine industrial raw concrete with soft brown curtains, handsome parquet floors and sunken tiled bathrooms.
Read the full review: Lux 11, Berlin
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Hotel AMANO
If you’re coming to Berlin to explore its trendier side, the Amano is perfectly located. Step out of the front doors and you’re surrounded by the buzzy plethora of boutiques, bars, restaurants and galleries that line nearby Rosenthalerstrasse, Auguststrasse and Torstrasse. Interior designer Ester Bruzkus has managed to give the interior a contemporary and fairly luxuriant feel, especially in the lounge and bistro area, which features brushed copper, velvet upholstery and contemporary artworks by photographer Oliver Rath (whose gallery is next door). The courtyard garden is small but very pleasant, and the rooftop terrace bar attracts a hip crowd.
Read the full review: Hotel AMANO, Berlin
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Michelberger Hotel
Although it falls into a budget category, the space at Michelberger has been designed by internationally renowned designer Werner Aisslinger, who has worked hard to make sure the whole place yells youthful creativity. The big round desk that acts as reception is part of a large, open lobby area that has a deliberately unfinished feel and contains a characterful café and lounge. Like the rest of the hotel, the rooms are individually designed in a dizzying variety of themes. It has a pumping bar, which is popular in its own right, plus you're close to Friedrichshain’s infamous nightlife and cafés. The Oberbaum Bridge and the East Side Gallery, the longest standing stretch of the Berlin Wall, are also nearby.
Read the full review: Michelberger Hotel, Berlin
Quentin Design Hotel
The location means you can choose between exploring the alternative cafés, nightlife and pretty streets and squares of Schöneberg (which is also the city’s primary gay district), and Charlottenburg’s more upscale spread of restaurants and shops. Despite being nestled in a renovated historical building, the hotel is unapologetically modern. It carries its contemporary-chic aesthetic well for the most part and the 60 rooms are all decorated in the same beige and white colour scheme, with tasteful, furnishings. The reception is open 24 hours and the friendly and multilingual staff can rent you a bike to get around on.
Read the full review: Quentin Design Hotel, Berlin
The Mandala Hotel
This graceful five-star offers exclusive apartment-style suites, an innovative top-floor spa and Michelin-starred dining right on Potsdamer Platz. It’s an island of luxurious calm amidst the bustle of the city, topped off with a slick bar (QIU) and highly polished service. From the soothing, sand-coloured tones of the public areas and rooms to the burbling fountains in the restaurant and spa, and the staff’s crisp but unhurried professionalism, the Mandala has been designed throughout as a thoughtful and calming experience. All the furnishings, artworks and mini-libraries have been hand picked and, thanks to constant micro-refurbishments, everything feels more or less brand new.
Read the full review: The Mandala Hotel, Berlin
Provocateur Berlin
This West Berlin boutique bolthole offers a flamboyant and seductive interior by Israeli hotshot Saar Zafrir, a fabulous Asian-themed restaurant by celebrated local chef Duc Ngo, and a glamorous bar that’s buzzing at weekends. Service is classy and welcoming. Amsterdam-based Saar Zafrir has given what was once a residential property a fun and flamboyant makeover that’s characterised by bold colours (reds, golds, blues), sensual textiles (including velvet) and upmarket furnishings. The resultant impression is sexy and seductive, and could easily be quite kitsch if not for welcome light-hearted, Harry Potter-esque touches such as the gold-clad guest lift and floating candles at the bar.
Read the full review: Provocateur Berlin
art’otel berlin mitte
This plush hotel enjoys a central yet quiet location. Themed around the work of German artist Georg Baselitz, its well-appointed interior is stylish as well as arty, and amenities extend to a hip restaurant and cocktail bar set inside an adjacent and interconnected 17th-century building. The hotel has been running since 1997, but was comprehensively refurbished in 2016 by Scott Brownrigg, who has retained the hotel’s famed Georg Baselitz collection - more than 300 pieces of art, ranging from large pictures to smaller charcoal drawings - matching them to a chic designer palette of sumptuous greys, whites and bolder oranges plus a classy collection of funky furnishings.
Read the full review: art'oten berlin mitte
