Lloyd Hotel Amsterdam

 This art, fashion, and architecturally-minded hotel was started in 2004 by a quartet with backgrounds as diverse as art historian, restaurateur, and tax expert. The building was initially a hotel for Eastern Europeans emigrating to South America, then a haven for refugees, then a juvenile prison for young boys and finally, in the 1980s and 90s, artists' studios.

But there's even more novelty to this hotel in that its 117 rooms offer a range of one-, two-, three-, four- and five-star rooms, each conceived and decorated with certain care and detail. Occasional art exhibitions are staged throughout the building, and there's a shop and a restaurant too. Located in the rejuvenated and reinvented Eastern Docklands area of Zeeburg, the hotel is a five-minute tram ride from Central Station. Walking to the Warmoesstraat might take 30 minutes. Same owners as the equally arty-minded Hotel The Exchange in Damrak 50.