10 Ways to Turn Your Home Into the Hotel of Your Dreams

Having a “welcome” cocktail may not make sense since…it’s your home and you already live there, so who exactly is “welcoming” you? But think of it this way: if you’re demarcating the place where your home-as-a-workspace ends and the place where your home-as-a-relaxing-retreat starts, there’s no better way to do so than with a glass of something that signals you’re leaving those cares of the day-to-day behind. There’s something to be said for how special even a simple cocktail feels (and how having some bitters on hand make for a relatively inexpensive and very easy way to kick said simple cocktails into a higher gear) compared to, say, cracking open a beer and being done with it. But, if you don’t want to go through all the trouble of mixing and measuring, some sparkling wine in those champagne glasses does the trick quite nicely.

You know you’ve had an amazing night’s sleep when you wake up to the impenetrable darkness of your hotel room with the impression that it’s still the middle of the night, only to pull aside the curtains and find the midday sun blaring down on a fully in-the-swing-of-things swimming pool. If you’re besieged by ambient light pollution at night and the rosy middle finger of dawn in the morning, it’s time to affix your bedroom window with some blackout curtains to achieve those “deepest reaches of outer space” levels of darkness.

We’ve all heard the old cliché about mediocre “hotel art.” Old, however, has turned out to be the operative word as hotels have become more adventurous and thoughtful with regards to what pieces adorn their rooms, with consideration being given to how pieces fit in the space, the décor, and the destination. So, while your college-era poster of Klimt’s The Kiss may have served you well, take the time to outfit your walls with at least one piece that’s unique to your home. Whether you find a one-of-a-kind woven wall hanging or splurge on an original landscape painting, take some time to consider what visuals help you feel calm and peaceful and then introduce those pieces into your space.

A robe is one of those things that seem natural in hotels, but when adding them to our own closets feel like an archaic splurge, worn only by comically oafish layabouts or 19th century landed gentry. Au contraire. The simple act of ensconcing your body in this indoor outerwear makes the simple and mundane parts of home a lot more comfortable but a little more refined. Instead of stepping out of the shower and spending the next 45 minutes wrapped in a towel as you scroll through Twitter, you can do that wrapped in a garment made specifically for lounging. Suddenly, your pre-bed two fingers of whiskey take on the sophisticated air of a nightcap or a digestif.

Instead of low-key looting your next hotel room (which will just get charged to your credit card anyway), many properties (like W Hotels) make it possible to order their robes from their website, making your hotel-at-home recreation as authentic as possible.

For all the luxurious bells and whistles a hotel can boast, the decadence of having breakfast brought directly to your bedside may never be topped. For the in-home version, having an honest-to-goodness cart in your home for the express purpose of rolling it into your bedroom is a little more cumbersome than it’s worth. But instead of sticking with the old fashioned breakfast in bed tray with the rickety legs that seem like they could topple tea onto your duvet at any second, opt for a sturdier (and more stylish) version, like this brass and mirror tray which also happens to have handles for easy kitchen-to-bed transport.

You may not be able to head to a rooftop class or an ocean-view patio for your yoga session, but the great thing about yoga is that the only thing you really need to get started is your body. From there, you can add on the accouterments to give your in-home sessions more of a “wellness retreat” vibe.

Get set up with a mat, soften the lighting in your room (perhaps close your new blackout curtains), light a scented candle, and fire up a YouTube tutorial. Even if you’re not flexible, find the easiest setting on an app like Down Dog, and let the focused movement and breathing provide a meditative break from the news.

As the eponymous feature of the room itself, your bed is the natural focal point. And, as that focal point, you want to set them up with a foundation you’ll find in hotels across the world. White bed linens are an excellent investment for all the reasons hotels use them: they’ll never fade in the wash, they’ll never go out of style. Splurge (like, really splurge) on some high-end hotel-worthy sheets from Frette, but more budget-friendly sheets will still create the same clean-effect.

You may not have a soaking tub (or a tub at all) but you can still make a few small tweaks and additions that’ll take any bathroom from “that place where you brush your teeth” to a five-star spa experience. Instead of spending a small fortune on swapping out your drugstore soaps for full-size luxury brands, add some travel and miniature-sized versions for a fraction of the price. Exfoliate your entire body with this fancy, Japanese-style body brush. And, even if you don’t think you’re that handy, replacing your default showerhead with one that offers higher pressure or a rainfall style is a surprisingly easy way to recreate the pampered spa experience at home.

We all know that we should be looking at our screens less. They’re bad for our eyes, our sleep, and our anxiety. So why not take a cue from Ace Hotels and set up (or dust off) your record player. If you don’t already have a robust, High Fidelity scale collection, you can still disconnect from the news with your favorite albums with a little help from Spotify and the right Bluetooth speaker. This combination FM radio/alarm clock/Bluetooth speaker/wireless charger has the added benefit of cutting down on bedside clutter.

You may not be able to recreate the pleasant surprise you feel upon returning to your hotel room and seeing a little chocolate waiting for you on your pillow, but you can give yourself the proverbial “cherry on top” that your day deserves. Stock up on your collection of international candies so that you can get a literal taste of a new destination as you close out every evening.