Best Urban Hotels 2017: the judges

Mandla Sibeko
Founder and chairman of Seed Capital Ventures and director of FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg

80,000 miles flown per year, 16 trips taken per year, 17 hotels visited per year

To say that Johannesburg-born Sibeko is accomplished is to understate matters. At just 24, he’d already set up his first company, Born Free Media, which specialises in content and multimedia. This soon led to several key investments in food, retail and clothing alongside initiatives that empower young South Africans. He has championed the local art scene, including the FNB Joburg Art Fair and the Sanlam Handmade Contemporary Fair. ‘My mission is to get people from all over the world to come and experience the exciting contemporary art culture that Johannesburg has developed and pioneered for the rest of Africa.’ Unsurprisingly, Sibeko’s diverse portfolio – which includes the launch this year of an urban city renewal project in Johannesburg – involves extensive travelling. ‘I spend far more money on travel than anything else,’ he says, adding a preference for a good location and service as found at Durban’s Oyster Box and Paris’ La Maison Champs Élysées, designed by Maison Martin Margiela.

Writer: Daven Wu.

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017

Frederik Bille Brahe
Chef and restauranteur, Copenhagen

69,000 miles flown per year, 38 trips per year, 25 hotels visited per year

The combined successes of Café Atelier September, which serves up Copenhagen’s most sought-after avocado toast, and Apollo, a new bar and canteen at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg (W*222), have put Frederik Bille Brahe at the forefront of Denmark’s culinary scene. With his effortlessly cool restaurant interiors, avowed passion for art and design, and a collaboration with Hay on a kitchenware collection, the chef has also become an integral part of the city’s creative landscape. Behind all this activity is a desire ‘to create meaning for people, to provide them with energy, and nourish their intellect,’ explains Bille Brahe with characteristic modesty. He hits the road often for brief stints at overseas restaurants or in search of inspiration, spending the most time in New York, Tokyo and Paris, and favouring hotels that prioritise comfort and service. ‘A hotel experience for me should be like a home away from home.’

Writer: TF Chan. 

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017

Sofia Sanchez de Betak
Influencer, Buenos Aires

80,000 miles flown per year, 30 trips taken per year, 36 hotels visited per year

It’s difficult to pin down exactly what Sofia Sanchez de Betak does. Art director, fashion consultant, designer, red carpet staple, brand ambassador and author, she is probably best summed up by that nebulous contemporary catch-all, ‘influencer’. Her lifestyle is equally cosmopolitan, split between her native Argentina, New York and Europe, with frequent jaunts elsewhere. Always on the move, it’s no surprise that Sanchez de Betak – Chufy to her legions of followers – values spaces that retain their individuality over cookie-cutter experiences, hence her choice of breakfast at Hazz in Istanbul as one of her most memorable hotel experiences. Ever in search of a new project, a recent visit to Nairobi left her feeling that Kenya’s capital deserved an excellent urban hotel of its own. A few ideas have already crossed her mind. ‘I would do a charming, small boutique hotel, and a traditional colonial residence,’ she says. World, watch this space.

Writer: Warren Singh-Bartlett.

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017

Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
Gallerist, New York

100,000 miles flown per year, 30 trips taken per year, 30 hotels visited per year

As the founder of Salon 94, one of New York’s most dynamic art galleries, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is used to pushing boundaries. Since its founding in 2002, Salon 94 has been located in a dedicated project space within her Rafael Viñolydesigned townhouse on the Upper East Side, and it has served as a backdrop for artists such as Wangechi Mutu, Carlo Mollino, Rick Owens and Alexander Calder. Bringing together fine art, contemporary design and ceramics in a shared context, Greenberg Rohatyn’s trailblazing point of view has not only led to the opening of the gallery’s Freeman Alley (2007) and Bowery (2010) locations, both on the Lower East Side, but also a dedicated design arm, Salon 94 Design, launched in March this year in partnership with dealer Paul Johnson, of Johnson Trading Gallery. Suffice to say, Greenberg Rohatyn travels a lot. Logging about 100,000 air miles each year on trips to art fairs, studio visits with artists, and museums, Greenberg Rohatyn regularly travels all over North and South America, Europe and Asia. And while she does enjoy boutique hotels with character and a well-conceived design, she’s still loyal to a few classic grand hotels, like Claridge’s in London, where the concierge service and finishing touches are second to none.

Writer: Pei-Ru Keh.

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017

Sorapoj Techakraisri
CEO, Pace Development Corporation

184,000 miles flown per year, 20 trips taken per year, 23 hotels visited per year

It’s hardly hyperbole to note that real estate is in Techakraisri’s blood, though he and his brother Chotipol have, through their Bangkok-based Pace Development, ratcheted up their family’s real estate development profile by several notches. In addition to overseeing a pair of condos and resort projects in Hokkaido, and a country club and villas in Hua Hin, the 39-year-old property tycoon is particularly bullish in Bangkok, where he’s just topped out his biggest bet, the $600m MahaNakhon, a 77-storey pixellated skyscraper and Thailand’s tallest tower, designed by one Ole Scheeren. The scale of Pace’s portfolio requires constant travel, especially to New York where Techakraisri is again working with Scheeren, this time on a revamped retail concept for up market US grocery Dean & DeLuca, which he acquired in 2014 for a cool $140m. And what’s his preferred accommodation on the road? ‘An urban hotel in a prime location, in a mixed-use development with easy access to services and major roads,’ he says, citing The London Edition, Aman Tokyo and the Crosby Street Hotel in New York as exemplars of that model.

Writer: Daven Wu.

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017

Kedem Shinar
Architect, Tel Aviv

30,000 miles flown per year, 10 trips taken per year, 8 hotels visited per year

Born in Tel Aviv, brought up in Boston, and a graduate of Tokyo’s Musashino Art University, Kedem Shinar is at home in many cultures. The daughter of architect Ami Shinar, with whom she collaborated on the neo-brutalist Sderot train station, Shinar worked with Toyo Ito and Kengo Kuma before returning to Israel. Founding her studio in 2013, she recently made waves with the CY House, a simple yet sophisticated project on a lush garden plot located in the village of Carmey Yosef in the Jerusalem Hills. Drawing upon the design traditions of the Bauhaus, Japan and De Stijl, the house’s massive windows blur the lines between inside and out. Shinar believes that a great hotel must balance service and value, but that a sense of place is paramount, and she cites Venice’s Flora as a favourite. ‘I’m not interested in visiting a hotel that looks just like another,’ she says. ‘I’m able to forgive anything when I feel like I’m immersed in a place of charm and beauty.

Writer: Warren Singh-Bartlett. 

See the shortlist for our Best Urban Hotels 2017