Vista Walkerhill Seoul

The interiors are impressive as well, from the living-room lobby, where guests lounge on daybeds and egg-shaped chairs hang from the high atrium ceiling, to the guest rooms, decorated in bright red and stark white, with natural wood floors and translucent glass shower walls. Everywhere you turn there’s another inventive design flourish—fish swim in a tank alongside the swimming pool, visible from underwater through a glass wall.

Design isn’t the only attraction; of course some of the W hotels are as pretty as any of the world’s designer hotels, but with a professional and uniform approach to service that many independent hotels would do well to emulate. Here there’s no trade-off between visual sophistication and first-class service; you’ll have both, and leave wondering why so many other hotels force you to choose one over the other.