Art deco arrived in 1925 as a provocation — disciplined geometric lines as a rebuke to art nouveau’s soft florals, gleaming metal against hand-carved wood, the machine age muscling into Edwardian drawing rooms.
A century later, the aesthetic endures, influencing everything from film to fashion to architecture.
Centennial celebrations continue everywhere from Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs (through April 26) and Miami Beach’s “100 Years of Art Deco” (through January in Lummus Park). But one of the best ways to experience the movement is to step into a grand hotel.
From a gold-topped tower in Chicago to a Nile-side palace in Cairo, these 20 hotels don’t put art deco behind the glass — they put you inside it.
The Savoy, London
The stainless-steel “Savoy” sign glows above the Strand, an art deco beacon on a Victorian landmark.
Opened in 1889, The Savoy added art deco elements into its Edwardian design in the 1920s and never looked back. The Beaufort Bar is the showpiece: black-and-gold everything and low lighting, the kind of room that makes you think everyone has a secret.
Pendry Chicago
Pendry Chicago’s Carbide and Carbon Building appears along Chicago’s skyline as a champagne bottle waiting to be uncorked — black granite base, green-gold terra cotta and a 24-karat gold-leaf cap.
Step inside and the aesthetic turns modern, but art deco is throughout: gilded elevators, black-and-white marble and a chevron backsplash at Bar Pendry show the landmark is still working the angles.
Waldorf Astoria New York
The Waldorf Astoria contains “some of the finest and most culturally significant art deco interiors in New York City,” according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The 1931 icon emerged from an extensive renovation in 2025 with those interiors intact, including the three-story Grand Ballroom with ruby curtains framing silver-wrapped balconies and a decorative plaster bas-relief medallion on the ceiling.
The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach
In Miami Beach’s Art Deco District, The Ritz-Carlton offers a modern exemplar. The restored art deco landmark from visionary architect Morris Lapidus captures the spirit of mid-century Miami Beach with sweeping curves and vintage details.
Get a taste of the city’s tropical deco vibe at Lapidus Bar, with its metal wall panels and bronze palm leaf light fixture. Rooms have subtle references, with white-on-white patterns and pendant lamps.
Fairmont Nile City, Cairo
The golden age of art deco inspired this hotel along the Nile. Fairmont Nile City’s 553 accommodations don contrasting shades like cream and black and have glossy lacquered furniture. The Presidential Suite particularly stands out with its splashes of black marble and gold-rimmed ceiling.
The look also spills over to the shiny lobby and Fairmont Gold Lounge.
The Georgian, Los Angeles
The eight-story robin’s-egg blue façade with gold trim and bronze decorative screens reveals that this boutique hotel offers a bright, whimsical and art deco-filled getaway. The Georgian injects color into everything from the marigold scalloped headboard to the jade U-shaped bar with blue velvet stools.
Details like corded phones and a key rack holding tassels add to the retro-glam ambiance.
Palazzo Ripetta, Rome
Celebrated Italian architect Luigi Moretti gave this 17th-century former convent a modernist makeover in the 1960s. A recent renovation of Palazzo Ripetta pays homage to Moretti’s legacy with touches that echo art deco of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
At the entrance, rich velvet drapes, gilded wall panels and geometric brass detailing evoke the opulence of the movement.
The St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai
Shanghai created its own distinct art deco style, incorporating Chinese motifs. The St. Regis illustrates this, seamlessly melding East and West and classic and current.
Muted-hued rooms have embroidered magnolia art or Bund murals as headboards along with bronze screens and lacquered furniture. In the lobby, geometric shapes cover the ceiling and floor, and imposing pillars frame an oversized abstract painting of Shanghai by Shi Qi.
Waldorf Astoria Osaka
For the new hotel, designer André Fu sought inspiration from Osaka’s art deco-style Yodoko Guest House created in 1918 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Fu reinterpreted the Waldorf Astoria brand’s art deco heritage with a contemporary Japanese point of view, using oak pillars and bronze latticework in the 29th-floor lobby; chandeliers recalling Osaka’s Tenjin Matsuri festival and art deco silhouettes in Peacock Alley; and square-patterned artwork above the beds.
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, New York
Opened in 1930, The Carlyle’s architecture showcases art deco’s clean lines, bold geometric shapes and vertical forms. Acclaimed designer Dorothy Draper gave the Upper East Side hotel’s original interiors a strong art deco identity, like the black-and-white marble lobby and the refined decorative motifs in the specialty suites.
The contemporary suites by designer Tony Chi also gracefully incorporate deco principles.
The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel
A fixture in the city since 1893, The Roosevelt’s façade features terra-cotta panels with floral and geometric motifs. Enter the grand marble-covered lobby to see ornamental columns and beams, glittering chandeliers and potted greenery.
Just off the lobby, visit the art deco-era Sazerac Bar with its African walnut bar and Paul Ninas murals to soak up the ambiance and sip its namesake cocktail.
Hôtel Martinez, Cannes
The whitewashed Hôtel Martinez brought art deco glamour to the Croisette when it debuted in 1929. It flaunts the movement’s design hallmarks (like geometry, symmetry and ornamentation) and materials (lacquered wood, marble, gold leaf and glass).
A 2018 renovation led by designer Pierre-Yves Rochon embraced a return to the French Riviera hotel’s art deco roots but with a fresh update.
Excelsior Hotel Gallia, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan
Art deco seeps through Excelsior Hotel Gallia, from its ornate façade and monumental architecture to its vertical bar light fixtures cascading down multiple floors and metallic-accented staircases.
Built in 1932, the Four-Star hotel mixes the timeless art deco tenets with a contemporary Milanese aesthetic. The spaces look clean and linear yet chic and stylish with statement lighting and pops of bold color.
Arizona Biltmore, LXR Hotels & Resorts, Phoenix
To create the Arizona Biltmore’s unusual exterior, architect Albert Chase McArthur enlisted his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright. They made desert sand concrete bricks with a pattern resembling palm trunks.
The so-called “Biltmore blocks” also add art deco flair in the lobby, Renata’s Hearth restaurant and the dark, intimate Wright Bar. The bricks also line the Mystery Room, which was secretly built in 1929 as a speakeasy but now operates as an event space.
The Chatwal, New York
Experience The Chatwal’s art deco charm at check-in. The black, red and tan lobby’s desks have symmetrical silver lines, floor-to-ceiling vertical lights flank the space and geometric patterns blanket the floor.
The aesthetic carries into The Lamb’s Club restaurant and its bar, but with a darker, more alluring feel. The metallic Empire State Building light fixtures hanging over the bar provide a playful touch.
Prince de Galles, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Paris
Dripping in art deco decadence, Prince de Galles infuses it into everything from the lobby mirrors to the gym’s acrobatic sculptures.
Some of the best spaces are Suite Lalique (René Lalique’s work was in the 1925 exhibition), which gleams in black and gold and features crystal works, and Suite Or, a gilded treasure. Restaurant Akira Back even adopts the theme with Japonisme, a fusion of 1920s Japanese design and art deco.
Claridge’s, London
Step onto the lobby’s black-and-white marble floor to take in this art deco marvel. Peek at the Foyer’s glimmering glass screens and mirrored wall panels, The Fumoir’s Lalique crystal panels and etched mirrors, and Claridge’s Restaurant’s colorful sunburst skylights, square-patterned flooring and a kitchen door framed with eye-catching layers of antique brass, colored glass and Calacatta Viola marble.
The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong
The 58-floor stunner immerses you in updated art deco design, from the bronze screens and glossy wood pieces in the seafoam rooms to the geometric cutouts spotted throughout the Four-Star hotel’s walls, sometimes as mirrored mosaics or carved into wood.
Get a room overlooking the Bund for a great view of Shanghai’s art deco architecture tracing the river.
The One Monumental Palace, Porto, Portugal
Don’t let The One’s 1923 neoclassical façade deceive you. Inside, the boutique hotel pays homage to art deco elegance.
Marble, brass and wood decorate the public spaces and 76 rooms, alongside graphic lines, patterned fabrics and zigzag screens all inspired by the 1920s. Find more at Bar Américain, featuring lacquered wood with gold stripes.
Waldorf Astoria Bangkok
Art deco gets a Thai makeover at Waldorf Astoria Bangkok. In the upper lobby, handcrafted bronze lattice screens subtly incorporate Thai dance references.
For more deco drama, Bull & Bear is decked out in bronze, dove gray and dark red; sculptural lighting; and brass furnishings. And hidden behind a secret dome door, the intimate Champagne Bar has vintage glass chandeliers and ornate accents.
