Ett Hem

Ett Hem—Swedish for 'a home'—takes the private-house hotel idea further than almost anywhere else in Europe. Set in a red-brick Arts-and-Crafts townhouse of 1910 in Lärkstaden, a hushed residential quarter north of the centre, it was conceived by owner Jeanette Mix with designer Ilse Crawford, whose humane, tactile interiors here became a reference point for an entire generation of hotels.

The radical part is the way the house is used. There is no reception counter and no restaurant in the conventional sense: guests help themselves from the pantry, chat with chefs cooking at the kitchen's long table, take drinks into the library or the walled garden, and eat wherever they please. What began as a dozen rooms has grown to around 22 across three neighbouring houses, without diluting the sense that one is staying with impossibly stylish friends.

Food is seasonal, market-led and quietly excellent, served house-party style; a small sauna and gym hide downstairs. Östermalm's boutiques and the city centre are a short walk or tram ride away, though many guests find themselves reluctant to leave the garden. For travellers weary of lobbies and formality, Ett Hem is as close to perfect as the genre gets, with rates to match its scarcity.