6 properties giving guesthouses a good name

Guesthouses suffer from an image problem. The term still conjures a certain look: heavy mahogany furniture, crocheted doilies, laminated house rules, breakfast served too early in a stuffy dining room that no one really wants you to sit in. Something polite, a bit tired, left behind by the rise of the boutique hotel and the bargain of the short-term rental.

But a different kind of guesthouse has been taking shape for some time now. The places that get this right tend not to start with hospitality at all; the accommodation is instead an extension of a creative sensibility. They’re conceived by people already immersed in other forms of work, be it fashion, art, design or retail, who bring the judgement they have developed elsewhere indoors. Not just in how a space looks, but how it’s actually lived in.

You notice it in small ways: books that have been thumbed through; furniture chosen for curling up in; bathrooms stocked with full-size bottles of brands you’d buy yourself. Nothing is too precious to be used, but nothing is generic either; there’s a distinct point of view. Guesthouses like this work particularly well when you’re travelling alone, in a pair, or simply want a room to yourself without disappearing entirely.

The guesthouses below are different in mood and location, but they share that warm logic. Each one operates as a cultural address first, accommodation second. Your stay becomes even more pleasurable if you pay attention to how a place has been put together, then let that guide how you move through, and beyond it.

La Traverse, Marseilles

La Traverse sits above Malmousque, in Marseilles, under the direction of Catherine Bastide. It’s a house that behaves like two things at once: guest accommodation at the top, and a gallery and event space at street level. The guest studio, La Petite Terrasse, is under the roof with views out towards Château d’If and the Frioul islands. It’s set up as a lived room rather than a hotel room, with a double bed and an extra bed sharing the space with a desk, a small library and a kitchenette.

The furniture is entirely made by Ateliers Laissez Passer using re-used materials from the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille; the entrance door glass has been hand-engraved by Ludivine Venet. The bed and other pieces sit on casters, making the studio easy to rearrange and play with.

Downstairs, La Traverse functions as a large, bright gallery space with a white mosaic floor and a concrete kitchen designed by Régis Jocteur Monrozier. It opens onto a veranda and a courtyard shaded by a faux poivrier. You stay upstairs knowing the ground floor might be in use for a launch or an exhibition, with no need to plan ahead when you can wander down and see what’s happening.

Pagostas, Patmos

Pagostas is set within the fortified lanes of Chora on Patmos, in a house held by the Monastery of Saint John and restored to host a small number of guests. The project is led by Maria Lemos and her husband, Gregoris Kambouroglou, also behind Mouki Mou and the agency Rainbow Wave. The building carries the same editorial instinct, translated into stone and lime.

Ceramics by Katerina Mourati sit on open shelves, while a scent developed with Lyn Harris lingers lightly through the rooms. Windows look directly onto the monastery walls, and from the upper level the whitewashed roofs of Chora step down towards the sea.

Kambouroglou, a former orthopaedic surgeon, spent months on site during the restoration, working alongside local builders and craftsmen. “Pagostas, as is Mouki Mou, is Maria’s brainchild,” he says. “The project depended on the harmony between Maria’s vision, Leda’s concept and the contribution of master craftsmen.” Interior designer Leda Athanasopoulou developed the rooms with Greek makers throughout, building beds into plastered alcoves and placing solid low tables against thick walls. Mattresses, pillows and bed linen are Greek-made.

The project draws on the Greek idea of philoxenia, the practice of welcoming strangers into one’s home. Communal spaces include a dining room, library, courtyard, garden and roof terrace. In the early evening, records play in the dining room to signal apéro, and guests gather with the hosts on the roof terrace, the monastery walls rising at eye level beyond the parapet.

Casa Julfa, Montmorillon

Casa Julfa is housed in a 17th-century townhouse in the historic centre of Montmorillon, south-east of Poitiers. The town has long been associated with books, inks and calligraphy, and the house reflects that history. Founded by the artist Corinne Aivazian, it operates as both guest accommodation and artist residency.

Four apartments are arranged across three floors of the townhouse, while an adjoining forge has been converted into an atelier. The studio retains its industrial proportions, with a tall opening that brings daylight across worktables and pottery wheels during the Makers & Thinkers residencies.

Inside the house, rooms carry traces of successive decades of use. Original 1950s and 60s wallpaper sits beside a large tapestry and stone fireplace, while fabrics sourced from local brocantes appear in curtains and upholstery. A short walk from the door, the Gartempe river runs through the medieval quarter, where bookshops, printers and paper dealers still shape the town’s life with the written page.

Valletta Vintage, Valletta

Valletta Vintage is spread across a cluster of restored townhouses in the historic centre of Malta’s capital, set among narrow streets and honey-coloured limestone façades that define the city. The project was founded by architect Chris Briffa, whose work begins with the restoration of Valletta’s limestone houses and continues with apartments furnished for short stays. Each address retains the proportions, stone surfaces and deep-set windows of the city’s domestic architecture.

Furniture and objects have been introduced gradually, mostly by Chris’ wife Hanna Briffa, who knows many of her returning visitors personally. Mid-century seating, studio ceramics and vintage lighting sit comfortably within rooms where the thickness of the masonry walls and the height of the ceilings allow everything to breathe. Balconies and shutters open onto the street, keeping the apartments in close contact with everyday life in Valletta.

Guests can stay in DOMA, a townhouse currently available for short lets, while the neighbouring SCALA building continues to evolve. Two additional spaces are underway there: a lounge with a small cinema for guests below ground, and a street-level shop that will offer natural wines, vintage pieces and other carefully chosen objects when it opens this autumn. Together, they extend Briffa’s inviting original premise, with shared rooms for guests below and a small shop opening onto the street.

Jonojé, Bruges

Jonojé is in a listed building in Bruges, among narrow medieval streets running towards the canals. The property has been reworked by the design studio Studio LOHO, founded in 2017 by Karel Loontiens and Jo Hoeven. The project combines the studio’s working environment with accommodation, allowing guests to stay within the same spaces where the designers develop their objects and interiors.

Six suites, each around 75 square metres, occupy the upper floors. The rooms function as demonstration interiors, furnished with pieces designed and produced by the studio in its Bruges workshops. Materials remain close to their natural state, with clay, wood and stone forming much of the palette. A ceramic bathtub shaped from a single block of clay anchors the room, reflecting the studio’s emphasis on material process.

As Hoeven explains, the approach comes from the designers’ close involvement in every detail of the space. “What makes Jonojé different is that we are not only hosts, but also the creators of everything the guest experiences,” he says. “We define luxury as attention: to materials, to detail, to tranquillity.”

Elsewhere in the building are the studio’s showroom and gallery spaces, alongside working areas where new pieces are developed. A garden of more than 1,200 square metres sits just outside the city centre, extending the project beyond the house.

Because the objects and interiors are designed and made by the studio, the spaces remain closely tied to their practice. As Hoeven puts it: “We have designed and crafted every object ourselves, so we know every line and nuance of the space. For us, hospitality is a personal invitation into a world we have created ourselves.”

10AM Lofts, Athens

1OAM Lofts is in the Kerameikos–Psyrri quarter of Athens, a neighbourhood where workshops and small galleries mix with late-night cafés and music venues. The guesthouse forms part of the wider world of 1OAM Apotheke, the project founded by Eva Papadaki that explores Greek ingredients and everyday rituals.

The loft apartments were conceived as places to live for a short time within the city. As Papadaki explains: “1OAM Lofts is a guesthouse set in one of Athens’ creative districts. Surrounded by art spaces and clubs, the idea was never to create hotel rooms, but homes where guests feel part of the neighbourhood and move through the city as residents do.”

During the week, visitors can book an appointment to explore the ingredients at the heart of the apotheke, including wild Cretan herbs and essential oils, along with soaps and incense prepared in small batches by the studio. Many of these references trace back to Papadaki’s childhood in Crete, where her grandmother made soap with herbs from the garden and kept olive oil and thyme honey close at hand in the kitchen. At weekends, the doors open more freely, with pastries from the bakery, coffee, organic Greek tea and wine served to guests and neighbours.