At 1 Hotels, luxury means something different
As 1 Hotels prepare for their biggest rollout of openings, Adam Bloodworth explores the brand’s intriguing formula
Sure, you can have a great dinner, and yep, the spa’s so nice you could easily pop in for an hour but end up spending the whole afternoon. But it isn’t an obvious type of luxury that appeals about 1 Hotels.
With our nervous systems on permanent alert, theirs is an appealing elixir. The brand has a more subtle means of helping guests relax. Marketed as more sustainable than most hotels, 1 Hotels bring that boring message to life in a way that is proving a new gold standard for sustainability and eco-credentials in travel.
With design murals made of live walls, you’re immersed in nature. A floral chandelier hanging in the new London hotel is worth the visit alone. Properties contain thousands of living installations that genuinely calm and transport. This year will be the company’s busiest to date, with four new properties set to launch, showing there’s life in the on-the-nose-sounding idea of bringing rainforest levels of shrubbery indoors in a bid to strike up conversations about eco friendliness.
As for the plants, they’re more provocative than actual carbon reducers, but they do force guests to consider their carbon footprint
Nashville, Miami and New York properties were acquired from 1 Hotels by industry giant Host Hotels & Resorts last year, underlining the company’s credentials.
1 Hotels: making sustainability less boring
Hotels are obviously huge drains on energy resources. No matter whether you request sheets to be washed or not, the model is hugely energy inefficient. One or two world-leading properties claim to be carbon negative, but they are outliers rather than the norm.
Still, 1 Hotels is making real progress. Each property has green building certifications and relies on local communities to source food and drink. Rooms have space to leave old, unwanted clothes so they can be given to people that need them and furniture is made from reclaimed wood; the latest tech is behind lighting controls as well as organic mattresses. As for the plants, they are more provocative than actual carbon reducers, but they do force guests to consider their carbon footprint.
PEACE AND QUIET
According to the old adage, if you throw enough s**t, some of it will stick. And it turns out if you put up enough art made of hydrangeas and walls from clumps of moss, what sticks is a general sense of peace and calm. Science tells us that being in nature, particularly around the colour green, relaxes us. But rather than just looking pretty, my bedroom, full of cacti and succulents, was a much more pleasant place to be than most hotel rooms.
I actually read those books put out as props and relaxed into a slumber in front of the TV, unwinding in the transient space that is typically where I’d dump clothes and prepare to run out the door. In New York – where the 1 Hotels formula is most required as an antidote to the chaos outside – I sat at my (admittedly small) desk and worked while enjoying the slither of a view of Central Park. I breathed more deeply. Could it be this simple?
WHERE TO GO
In Miami there’s a new rooftop bar with spectacular views of South Beath and its iconic Art Deco hotels, as well as a revamped restaurant. In New York’s Midtown, newly opened suites overlook Central Park, and in London, the latest outpost from Michelin starred chef Tom Sellers has opened. New openings this year are in Copenhagen, Seattle, Tokyo and Melbourne.
The spate of new properties suggests there’s something that’s working about this formula. If you’re prone to feeling stressed, check in and try it out for yourself.
Visit 1hotels.com to find out more