The world’s best hotel shops
A version of this article was published in Financial Times Globetrotter, 30 June 2026
The Ritz Paris Galerie. Copyright Laura Hodgson
One afternoon in 1979, my mother took me, then a tender 11, to tea at the Paris Ritz. My main memory of that outing is of discovering the Galerie des Tentations, the shopping arcade opened by Marie-Louise Ritz in 1913 as a useful embellishment to her husband’s hotel. To step into the rarefied 18th-century fantasy of the Ritz had been thrilling enough; to discover a doll’s house shopping arcade inside, its rows of sparkling vitrines replete with brilliant bathrobes, pearls and potions for the hotel’s transiting Cleopatras, was nothing short of magical.
Hotel shops around the world have continued to charm me ever since and I am glad to say that the Ritz’s Galerie, with its 96 vitrines and five boutiques, has lost none of its appeal. A hotel shop need not, however, be particularly luxurious. The Kiosk at the Baur au Lac in Zürich and the Book Kiosk at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong are, essentially, newsstands, while the Concierge Desk at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg doubles as one (the concierge’s local knowledge framed by global knowledge).
In an era in which newsagents are disappearing, there is something supremely comforting (indeed luxurious) about the physical process of choosing a newspaper or magazine from a well-ordered rack. When travelling, there is the added pleasure of finding one’s favourite paper abroad or of exploring local publications such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zürich’s newspaper of record), Du (Switzerland’s legendary art magazine) or the South China Morning Post (the Hong Kong daily broadsheet). If the newsstand sells other things, then so much the better – a pot of honey from the Baur au Lac’s beehives, perhaps, so that, back home, you can have a little Zürich on your toast, or a little rose petal jam from the Mandarin Oriental to bring you luck, prosperity and eternal spring.
The Concierge Desk at Hamburg’s Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten; The Kiosk at the Baur au Lac in Zurich. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson
For those in need of in-hotel bookstores (or who have been suffering from intellectual withdrawal symptoms ever since Ursus Books left The Carlyle’s mezzanine), reliable aesthetes rave about Mr Jain’s bookshop at the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur which specialises in rare volumes on Indian culture, everything from textiles to jewellery and furniture. A particular attraction, apart from its stock, is that you can have your purchases bound in the leather of your choosing. And should ever you tire of the fleshpots of Las Vegas, you will find redemption at Bauman Rare Books in the Venetian Resort’s so-called Grand Canal Shoppes in the form, perhaps, of an 1866 biography of Samuel Colt, inventor of “the gun that tamed the West”.
Some of the most engaging hotel shops are those deeply rooted in their location, providing access to local design and manufacturing. Tokyo hotels, for example, are great for shirtmakers. A favourite is Tani Shirts in the Okura Hotel’s shopping arcade, now run by Teruyasu Ito, whose father opened the shop in 1966. Tani uses silky Giza cotton, grown in the Nile Delta and woven in Shizuoka Prefecture, and fine Japanese mother-of-pearl buttons. You can have your initials embroidered in the style of your choice on the outside and, for the purposes of the laundry, sewn inside using prep-school-style nametags. Elsewhere in the excellent arcade locally made leather goods, clothing, crafts and jewellery will bring further satisfaction.
Hong Kong was once famous for its hotel tailors and bootmakers, but their numbers appear to be dwindling. Mayer Shoe Co, at the Mandarin Oriental since 1965, recently moved to the nearby Galleria Mall where it will continue to make shoes, bags and other leather goods to order. Over in Kowloon, however, legendary tailor Jimmy Chen & Co continues, as it has done for the past 75 years, to look after clients from its supremely elegant premises in The Peninsula hotel. Once again, India scores well, judging by the magnificent velvet smoking jacket a friend has been shimmering in following a recent visit to Burlingtons tailors in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai.
The author’s shirts by Tani, which can be found in the arcade of Tokyo’s Okura Hotel. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson
A leather playing-cards holder created by luxury British brand Connolly for London’s The Chancery Rosewood. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson
I am a little unsure about hotel merch. While I adore walking around London under a huge black and yellow Carlyle hotel umbrella a dear friend gave me, logoed baseball caps have never quite done it for me. But occasionally, you find thoughtful and beautiful designs. The Chancery Rosewood in London works with local brands to offer its guests a “Best of British” selection of pieces designed for the hotel: from Erdem, pyjamas in a beguiling toile de Jouy interspersed with Georgian maps of Mayfair where the hotel is located; from Connolly, discreetly embossed leatherware; from Orlebar Brown, swimming trunks printed with the grid of Eero Saarinen’s façade of the former embassy that the hotel occupies (tough competition for the Bavarian Lederhosen-style bathers I once acquired in the shop at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich).Claridge’s offers jade and white art-deco hotel crockery with assorted pyjamas made by Mayfair neighbour Anderson & Sheppard, perfect for aspiring Bertie Woosters.
Elsewhere Le Byblos Saint Tropez invites guests to wheel away a little of its nostalgic seaside joie de vivre in the form of Globe-Trotter cabin cases, finished in ivory canvas and Byblos orange leather. In New York’s JFK airport, the TWA Hotel has gone for a range of retro airline-themed accessories as gladsome as the 1962 terminal that the hotel occupies, from luggage tags to kitschy swizzle sticks. The prize for originality, however, goes to the Ritz Paris for its jewellery collection on sale in the Galerie: broken pieces of the hotel’s Haviland Limoges china upcycled into jewellery by La Fabrique Nomade, a not-for-profit organisation that supports refugee and migrant craftspeople. And it is not the hotel’s only upcycling project. “Last year, we produced a limited-edition tote bags capsule made from obsolete hotel upholstery and curtain fabrics. The range sold out almost immediately,” explained Maddalena Barile, the hotel’s retail director.
Hotel vitrines can also be an interesting way of introducing guests to local shops. Claridge’s helpfully displays tomes available from Shapero Rare Books on New Bond Street, from Muhammad Ali to Margaret Thatcher, while the Ritz Paris Galerie presents smaller brands such as playing-card maker Grimaud or Franco-Chinese couturier By Fang. I was always captivated by the array of Portuguese cork products (including cork ties) that used to be in the vitrines of Reid’s Palace in Madeira, alongside an assortment of delicate Madeiran lace.
TWA-branded items including bandannas, swizzle sticks and luggage tags on sale at the TWA Hotel. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson
Hotels can also be places for art and antiques. I have a magnificent ceremonial Sudanese necklace made of semi-fossilised camel vertebrae from an antique shop at the Hotel Polana Serena in Maputo, Mozambique. The Chancery Rosewood’s “art concierge” puts on selling displays of contemporary artists, including finely moulded and carved porcelain pieces by Hitomi Hosono. At the Hotel New Otani shopping arcade in Tokyo, I was tempted by a Lucie Rie vase (Mitochu Koeki Gallery) and admired delicate works by the 20th-century ceramicist Handeishi Kawakita and his followers (Senkaku Gallery). You can find exquisite vintage jewellery at Bijoux Anciens in the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon and intricate Ottoman embroidery at Hikmet Mizanoğlu Arts and Antiques in the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus.
Great hotels attract locals as much as they do travellers, and what better way to do this than with good food shops? The bakery at The Peninsula in London has been a terrific addition to our neighbourhood: with baguettes on sale every day of the year, Christmas has never been crunchier. The Baur au Lac has had an impressive wine shop since 1844, surely the oldest hotel shop of all. In Paris, the Épicerie at Le Bristol offers delicacies from the hotel’s kitchens: a savoury kouglof (of Comté, chorizo and piment d’Espelette) will make you dream of your next meal at Epicure, the hotel’s restaurant where for many years the pastry would be served at the beginning of each meal. This is dining-chair travel at its finest.
Le Byblos Saint-Tropez collaborated with luggage brand Globe-Trotter on a cabin case with accents in the hotel’s signature orange. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson.
A Ritz Paris x La Fabrique Nomade ring crafted from the hotel’s upcycled china. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson
The Athens Hilton (recently reincarnated as the Conrad Athens The Ilisian) has, ever since it opened in 1963, been a place where Athenians gather alongside travellers and this underpins the approach taken by The Store, the “modern emporium” in its lobby. The Store is all about offering pieces that are not available elsewhere in the city. From handbags designed by its owner, Andria Mitsakos, to vintage Cretan textiles, contemporary Senegalese fashion by Selly Raby Kane or a mid-century French tapestry, The Store is joyfully fresh and eclectic.
For Mitsakos, an exuberant globetrotter, hotel shops should function as cultural crossroads. “Hospitality has always been about broadening horizons, because that’s what travel does, and the best retail reflects that spirit of discovery,” she says. For me, hotel shops should bring together objects from different places, traditions and disciplines in ways that feel both surprising and coherent, creating connections that extend far beyond their destination.”
The Senkaku Gallery in the arcade of Tokyo’s Hotel New Otani. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson.
L’Epicerie at at Le Bristol in Paris where the pastries include a savoury kouglof of Comté, chorizo and piment d’Espelette. Photograph Copyright Laura Hodgson