Grand Hyatt Berlin

It would be easy to mistake this place for a Tokyo hotel, with its Zen-inflected interiors and Japanese-style overflowing tubs, not to mention Helmut Jahn’s sleek and towering Sony Center next door—but this is not Shibuya, but rather Potsdamer Platz, the Wall-era no-man’s-land turned commercial hub, the bustling, futuristic heart of today’s Berlin.

Guest rooms, by the Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein, are minimalist and ever so gently avant-garde, with Japanese elements like cherrywood furniture alongside Bauhaus flourishes, whether subtle, like the black and white marble bathrooms, or more overt—each room features seven black-and-white photo prints from the Berlin Bauhaus Archives. Spaces are sprawling, and Feng Shui principles guide the layouts, which are anything but the L-shaped hotel room standard.

The Grand Hyatt’s interiors might inspire the fashion editors—many a photo spread has been shot with these spaces as a backdrop—but it’s the whole package that brings the tech and media types back over and over again. Service is impeccable, easily the equal as that available at any of the old-fashioned grand hotels, with the addition of a computer help desk, to assist with any technology issues.

Facilities are appropriately grand as well, bordering on comprehensive, with a gorgeous rooftop spa and indoor pool, business and conference facilities that put your office to shame, and three restaurants, including Vox, with its sushi bar and open kitchen. Named after the Vox-Haus restaurant, which occupied this very space in the 1920s, it’s another amazing Hannes Wettstein space, and a local hot spot. The Grand Hyatt is already in the running for Berlin’s top hotel, and with environments like this, it’s unquestionably the most stylish.