19 Hotels under $250 We'd Actually Stay At
I am a St. Regis regular. A Four Seasons snob. A luxury hotels of the world aficionado. But sometimes the budget doesn't support four-figures-a-night-times-multiple-rooms... So to the Internet I go.
Finding very-nice hotels that work with my budget is a Herculean task. My email inbox is constantly bombarded by new, luxury openings regularly; all lovely, but it can sometimes seem as though affordable hotel options are few and far between, or in some cases, non-existent.
But there are smart and budget-friendly hotels out there – and we’ve made it easy by scouring out editor-approved hotels from around the world and picking the ones with the best-value price tag.
Of course, the concept of affordability is subjective and depends on lots of factors – including the destination you’re traveling to. Here, we’re not rounding up the cheapest hotels in the world – rather our favorite places to stay where you won’t compromise on style, design and facilities but don’t need deep pockets to check-in.
Hotel Rochechouart, Paris
Strolling through the Pigalle neighborhood and into this eight-story Art Deco relic, there’s a distinct sense of a time when the Twenties roared. A late-night hotspot on Boulevard Marguerite de Rochechouart, the hotel’s Jazz Age incarnation drew in traveling artists, intellectuals and a smattering of stars. It’s now part of Orso, a new collection of hotels run by industry veterans Louis and Anouk Solanet (also behind Hotel Wallace below), and the sultry theatrics of the era make a welcome comeback. Upstairs, 106 rooms were given an autumnal, woody touch with shades of bronze, ochre and terracotta. Decorative details, from the burl-wood headboards to the curved armchairs and alabaster suspension lamps, thoughtfully whisk guests to another time. The Sacré-Coeur looms large from northern-facing bedroom windows (and in some cases, balconies) but is visible to all from the rooftop bar. On the ground floor, an old-world brasserie with plush banquettes serves up comforting Parisian classics, from chicken-liver pâté to roasted pork belly with crisp frites and the signature crêpe cake – a family recipe guests invariably try to coax out of the staff. One floor underground, the old Mikado club of the 1920s has returned as a dimly-lit speakeasy, where a trendy set sip cocktails on plush velvet sofas while a DJ spins electric beats in the corner. Next door, blue-hued Citrons et Huîtres is where locals perch at red metal tables on the pavement, throwing back fresh oysters from Brittany and chilled Champagne.
Prices: Rooms from around £120 per night.
POD Camps Bay, Cape Town South Africa
A Cape Town hotel round up wouldn’t be complete without a Camps Bay option, and Pod is my pick, not least for its location – set back but walking distance from the restaurants and bars that line Victoria road, with a great views of its pretty palm-lined beach (albeit not entirely unobstructed). There is also the matter of design. In a suburb known for white tiles and ostentatious bling, this clean-lined modernist box, softened with timber detailing, is very pleasing on the eye. Compact well-considered spaces, like the fabulous pool deck and bar – a vibey place to watch the sunset – and great amenities in even the smallest rooms, including a well-stocked minibar. Breakfast is the only meal prepared on-site but the hotel has teamed up with three local restaurants: Bo-Vine (a great steakhouse), Kauai (casual health food) and Col’Cacchio (wood-fired pizzas) deliver to your set table; you just sign on arrival and settle on departure. A happy team at your disposal, everyone is geared to ensure guests enjoy a memorable stay; as one guest succinctly put it: “Location was the reason we chose you but staff and service is why we’ll come back”.
Price: Rooms from around £150 per night.
Numo Ierapetra
Crete, Greece
This adults-only village-like retreat sits on a black-sand beach that hugs the Mediterranean coastline on the southern side of Crete, a lesser-known, alluring side of the island that holds just as much beauty as the north but with fewer visitors. Rooms are dotted across the resort, some equipped with a private pool and terrace, all offering a sense of privacy. And while the final touches could improve, the soft color palette and laid-back design offers a sense of serenity. Numo’s real strength lies in its swimming pool and beach club, where Crete’s rugged landscape is on full display. Daybeds seamlessly transition from pool to beach, giving you endless opportunities to awe at the unmatched blues of the Mediterranean – which I did endlessly. Be sure to order an ice-cold Mythos and Greek Sandwich from your lounger to soak up every last minute of sun.
Of the three main restaurants, Menoa is the stand out, bringing Peruvian and Asian cuisine to the Greek Islands. A buffer breakfast and dinner is on offer at Tamarisk, while lunches are a la carte – fresh Greek salads, perfectly (and I mean perfectly!) seasoned octopus, and mezze platters make for the ideal beach break. Make time for a sunset supper at The Coast by Tamarisk, Numo’s fine-dining spot serving meaty scallops drenched in garlic butter, rich lobster spaghetti and a melt-in-your-mouth red velvet molten cake that I’m still dreaming about.
Price: Rooms from around £160 per night.
Esmé Miami Beach
Miami
The first new hotel to grace South Beach’s storied Española Way in decade, the enchanting Esme Miami Beach is all about the boutique hotel charms. Rather than replicate the easy, breezy, sand-in-your-toes style of South Beach’s grand dames, this restored enclave (which comprises eight buildings connected by charming paseos) offers a well-placed base from which to explore South Beach. You know you’re in for a unique experience as soon as you walk in the door; the lobby is outfitted with thick crimson carpeting, Moroccan-style benches and accents of brass and dark green, setting the tone for the Moorish influence on decor throughout the property. The rooftop pool is small-but-striking (and not really made for anything other than dipping) but it’s a perfect spot for catching sun under the connected peach and white striped daybeds that line the deck.
Price: Rooms from around £145 per night.
Lime Tree Hotel London
Wedged between Belgravia’s swishest boutiques, The Lime Tree Hotel occupies two charming townhouses a stone’s throw from Victoria Station. Its prime location places you a short stroll away from some of the capital’s most iconic landmarks, making it our go-to recommendation if sightseeing is top of your agenda: from the hotel’s doorstep, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Tate Britain all unfold in various directions. Room types cater to all kinds of travelers, whether you’re going solo or arriving in groups of up to three: all are thoughtfully decorated with touchy-feely fabrics (think soft cashmere throws and velvet headboards in soothing shades of blue and pink) along with funky, floral wallpapers – while ensuite bathrooms feature smartly tiled showers and Bramley body lotions. Fuel up for a day of playing tourist at the in-house brunch café, The Buttery, where guests and locals rub shoulders over breakfast in a relaxed, sunlit setting. Hearty full Englishes are served up with fresh, seasonal produce from the hotel’s own allotment, and beans roasted by The Gentlemen Baristas make for expertly poured flat whites. During the warmer months, the café’s doors open onto a secluded, foliage-framed garden, which might just be one of London’s best kept secrets.
Price: Rooms from around £200 per night.
Toggle Hotel Suidobashi, Tokyo, Japan
Toggle is the operative word: Guests can customize their experience, moving between the hotel’s different moods and room setups. It’s a big design swing that hits – bold pastels, compelling branding, and lofted furniture enliven these small-budget hotel rooms. The yellow and black stripes will grab you as you zoom by on the commuter train. Inside, the swatch book of eye-popping hues continues as purples and blues coat the common spaces and rooms. Hallways sliced down the middle by different shades of paint make for particularly fun Instagramming as you toe the line between two brash commitments to color. It’s worth combing through the website to pick your palette pattern before you arrive as a full spectrum of colors means you could end up with lemon-wedge yellows or deep coats of sapphire in your bedroom. Beds lofted above couches are particularly fun, and try for a room facing away from the commuter traffic for maximum quiet. Brandon Presser
Price: Rooms from around £80 per night.
The Vintage, Lisbon, Portugal
The Vintage may well be one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in – there, I said it. An understated elegance, style, and attention to detail leave guests fully satisfied following their stay. The surroundings immediately feel special – a roomy lobby with mid-century touches provides an ideal place to chill or to set up your out-of-office email. The rooms are a delight – the themes are ‘inspire, relax, and play’. ‘Play’ is rendered in a deep, relaxing terracotta that nods to Lisbon’s rooftops. Pops of color come with Bauhaus-esque wall art and an old-school telephone that rings down to reception. All rooms have one-off vintage chairs and trolley bar carts with a complimentary gin and tonic kit, including a sachet of botanicals. A small yet charming rooftop bar has a great sunset view over the city, and in the basement, you will find a pool, steam room, and spa using Portuguese brand Claus Porto products, French brand La Sultane de Saba and Italian brand Comfort Zone. An a la carte breakfast is served downstairs – I recommend the omelette.
Price: Rooms from around £170 per night.
Potato Head, Bali
A sustainable stay in Bali might conjure up images of bamboo ceilings and rice field surroundings, but at Potato Head Suites, forward-thinking hotelier Ronald Akili takes a boldly different approach. As part of Desa Potato Head, an eco-minded creative village in the heart of glitzy Seminyak, this tropical modernist boutique hotel has sustainability embedded into its DNA. It shows everywhere: the facade from 1.8 million hand-pressed bricks, baked locally with only coconut shells; local textiles from plant-based dyes; and smart water- and electricity system that helped the hotel gain an UN-approved Climate Neutral certification. Rooms are furnished with teak trimmings by local artisans and Akili’s collection of mid-century modern furniture, plus wall-spanning cocktail stations to shake, muddle, and mix your own mojitos. As a guest, you’ll have first dibs on daybeds at the hot-ticked Potato Head Beach Club, hidden behind a wall of recycled window shutters next door. Plus, access to the Desa’s other features – including a jamu bar, eco-innovation lab, and a New Age-y wellness center with ice baths, sound healing experiences, and guided breathwork sessions.
Price: From about £165 per night
The Standard, Singapore
Tucked off buzzy Orchard Road, the Standard, Singapore, gives mid-century modern a tropical twist by setting the scene with bold colors, retro-inspired decor, and lush greenery. Art pops everywhere, from Eric Tobua’s surreal reception-desk diorama to Samuel Xun’s larger-than-life floral courtyard sculpture. The 143 rooms keep it playful with bright yellow tiled bathrooms, timber-ribbed canopies, and fun, personalized touches like handwritten messages on your mirror. Nicholas Cheng, the chef of Kaya, a modern izakaya, spotlights low-waste cuisine with a punchy menu built around pickling and fermentation, while Kaya Bar serves Asian-inspired cocktails. With its planned cultural talks, fashion takeovers, and poolside parties, the Standard, Singapore, is a stylish playground for the country’s cool crowd.
Price: Rooms from around £170 per night.
Borneta, Barcelona, Spain
Beautifully renovated and ever-so cozy, with a location in the most charming neighborhood in Barcelona, Borneta has that genuine home-away-from-home vibe that most hotels aspire to, but few achieve. Rooms range from The Classic to The Superior, The Signature, The Corner and The Terrace, up to the Borneta suite. Many have small balconies; some have private terraces overlooking sights like Passeig de Picasso or Park Ciutadella – you can even spot the Sagrada Família from the top-floor suites that come with exclusive rooftop access, a well-stocked complimentary minibar full of locally-inspired treats, and spacious terraces.
Less famous than Gaudí’s Park Güell, Ciutadella Park is often (and sadly) overlooked by visitors. It is set across the road from Borneta, so there’s no excuse not to check it out. Don’t miss the recently restored iron greenhouse, built for the 1888 Universal Exposition.
Price: Rooms from around £160 per night.
The Hoxton, Florence, Italy
Set on the northern limits of Florence’s Centro Storico The Hoxton occupies two very different buildings. One – a late-Renaissance palazzo complete with vaulted portico and original frescoes – was built for the aristocratic Ricasoli family while the other is a 1980s modernist structure. With two very distinct design styles and in keeping with the brand philosophy, the 158 rooms are functional yet hip and divided into the five standard Hoxton categories with names like Snug, Biggy, and Studio (the largest). Some rooms have terraces with outdoor bathtubs; others look onto Brunelleschi’s iconic dome. Rooms in the striking wood-slatted Branzi building are inspired by the architect’s post-modern design ethos and come in bold pastels (pink, apricot, baby blue, grey) with custom-made furnishings in steel and lacquered wood and jazzy textiles.
Price: Rooms from around £130 per night.
Hyde Melbourne Place, Melbourne, Australia
This striking rust-colored 191-room hotel built from local bricks, concrete, and hardwood is a distillation of what makes this thrumming city tick. The debut hotel by sought-after Melbourne-based architecture and design studio Kennedy Nolan, is chock-full of head-turning details, which start at the linen-draped check-in desk with its supersized video-art installation by Australian artists and continue upward to the guest lounge blanketed in a retina-popping fuchsia carpet. The suites are light-flooded showstoppers tricked out in timber, burnt orange, and terrazzo with triple-height floor-to-ceiling windows and outdoor terraces with immense views of the cloud-busting peaks of skyscrapers. The rooftop, with its bar and retractable-rooftop restaurant Mid Air, is encased by a soaring brick wall and feels like a floating fortress with dramatic portholes that look like giant eyes watching over the city. It’s here where everyone from guests to locals gather, casually lounging on sofas and seated at tables, with some of the best views across the city.
Price: Rooms from around £170 per night.
The Source Hotel, Marrakech
This hip and friendly hotel is set in five hidden acres off the dusty road to Orika. Its rock-star theme was dreamt up by music-loving French owner Laurent Cohen, and his concept extends to a recording studio (with in-house technicians) and every conceivable instrument to play around with. The rooms (including two villas with private pools and an air-conditioned Berber tent) are imaginative and fun, with a stylish mix of handcrafted furniture. Each is different: the baroque, scarlet-walled Rolling Stones room; the Jimi Hendrix with a four-poster and a bath hidden behind a latticed wooden mashrabiya; the flashy silver Backstage artist’s lodge, or even the powder-pink Pompadour. All of which may sound over the top, but is elegant and wonderfully laidback. The good vibes continue at the white-on-white spa with treatments that include the Sound of Silence (using resonating Tibetan bowls) and the Forever Young (an anti-ageing massage with argan oil and prickly-pear essences). The garden restaurant, surrounded by citrus trees, serves soups, Moroccan salads and chicken and lamb tagines, with skewers of fresh fruit and honey pastries for pudding. If you can tear yourself away from the pool (where local musicians jam at sunset) or the dramatic views over the snow-capped Atlas Mountains, the clamor of Marrakech is just a 20-minute drive away.
Price: Rooms from around £150 per night.
The Hoxton, New York, USA
The Hoxton is loved for many things, not least the suburbs its contemporary, design-focused city hotels sit in. Its New York outpost is exemplary. The towering building can be found in the heart of Williamsburg, the cooler-than-cool neighborhood a bridge walk from touristy midtown and bustling Manhattan. As with most of its properties, it’s got a rooftop restaurant with impressive views across the city, and it celebrates locality with its food and beverage offering, as well as the artwork that spans its internal walls. Quirky details make all the difference: postcards by reception come printed with the kind of recommendations you’d get from a friend, and cover what to do, eat, drink and see, as well as how to get there. Rooms are small (as with most inner-city hotels), and breakfast is a croissant-in-a-brown-paper-bag situation, hung outside your door on request. The perfect base for an explorative trip, it’s comfortable, stylish, and excellently located.
Price: Rooms from around £200 per night.
SALT of Palmar, Mauritius
With its hipster poolside crowd supping local Flying Dodo IPA and Memphis movement-style murals adorning the walls, blink and you could be in Miami or Tulum. The zenned-out paddleboarders in the bay and sun-kissed patrons congregating around the slow-drip coffee machine give it the air of a zeitgeisty surf hotel (without the surf).
Designer Camille Walala has crafted a new narrative around this adults-only hangout, basing her motifs on the islands’ technicolor houses and emerald-green sugarcane fields. Its locavore and sustainable credentials pervade all elements of the hotel. The store’s rough-hewn ceramics are turned by the hand of local artisan Janine – one of the many trips on offer is a morning spent in her studio.
The peachy-hued dining space houses communal tables under rattan lamps, where no beef is served (very un-eco as it has to be imported) and 35 per cent of food is vegan. Native vegetables such as jacuma and christophine slumber in pickling jars on shelves. Next door, the bar offers barrel aging classes – we would cross continents again for a sip of their Oaktini, a rocket fuel meld of Bougainvillea rum, Drambuie, cinnamon syrup and Angostura bitters.
Prices: Rooms from around £170 per night.
137 Pillars Suites & Residences Bangkok, Thailand
This urban offshoot from the beloved 137 Pillars House in Chiang Mai is a bold departure from the nostalgic look of its northern sibling. Instead of rattan and teak, contemporary Thai art and chrome accents set the scene in the hotel’s snug, living room-like residences taking over a gleaming tower in the central Phrom Phong district. But it’s the suites you’ll want to book. Spread over the top half of the building, they feature separate bedrooms and marble-trimmed bathrooms with bowl-shaped tubs the size of plunge pools. Suite guests also have access to the Baan Borneo Club on the 26th floor for intimate breakfasts and complimentary sundowners, plus exclusive use of one of Bangkok’s most spectacular infinity rooftop pools on the 38th floor.
Price: Rooms from around £95 per night.
Lazure Hotel and Marina, Bay of Kotor
Lazure Hotel and Marina is set on the coast against the background of the Orjen mountain range and next to historic Herceg Novi, with its three fortresses and pretty old town that cascades down the hillside to a small port. Centered around a sensitively restored 300-year-old Venetian Republic lazaretto or quarantine station with its own small chapel and covered piazzetta, the hotel has 128 rooms and suites in two buildings, all of which echo the hotel’s calm, neutral palette, encouraging an atmosphere of tranquility throughout the property and its grounds, where stone-paved paths intersect the shade cast by mature palms and pines. The hotel’s private sandy beach has a 35-metre outdoor pool and a separate children’s pool, and the seasonal beach bar and restaurant offers sophisticated takes on contemporary street food, specialty pizzas, and delicious salads. In the Atmosphere Spa and Wellness Centre, a luminous 19-meter indoor pool looks out onto the sea, and guests can enjoy a large selection of saunas, steam and salt rooms, massages, and treatments. The à la carte Augusto Terrace and Rosemarine restaurants serve beautifully prepared international cuisine with a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian slant, as well as a variety of sushi and sashimi, while the stylish Rocco bar in the central lobby is the place for a coffee, cocktail or glass of wine, and the Baguetteria patisserie and wine bar is a great spot for a light bite during the day. Breakfast is a lavish buffet with regional specialties in the larger modern building. Beyond the hotel, leisurely private guided hikes on lofty Mount Orjen provide breathtaking views. Montenegro’s only coastal winery, Savina, is just a five-minute walk from the hotel and offers tastings in a stunning environment.
Price: Rooms from around £170 per night.
The Hari, Hong Kong
Surrounded by an eclectic mix of street markets, herbal tea parlors, busy restaurants and ding-dinging trams, this impressive boutique hotel has become a part of Wan Chai’s rich fabric since it opened in late 2020. The Hari’s annual art prize (open to self-taught artists and new graduates), regular pop-up exhibitions and fascinating Chronicles talks (most recently on the role of neon signs in Hong Kong cinema) have made the hotel popular with the city’s creative crowd. As has The Hari’s sociable terrace bar, overlooking the hustle and bustle of Lockhart Road. Then there are the two restaurants – Lucciola (Italian) and Zoku (Japanese) – which have been consistently serving terrific food for the last five years. The Tara Bernard interiors only add to the appeal, blending a sophisticated palette of sage greens, nutmeg and cinnamon with mid-century modern furniture, touchy-feely textures, open bookshelves and a rotation of artworks, including some Hari Art Prize finalists. Rooms start on the small side, as is the norm in Hong Kong, but have been cleverly designed with semi-open-plan Arabescato marble bathrooms, banquette seating and bronze accents which give the spaces a sleek residential feel. The three Penthouse suites are knockouts, with cocktail bars and private terraces with neon drenched city views.
Price: Rooms from around £175 per night.
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