Rooms Hotel Tbilisi

We didn’t know what to expect, but the reality was something we couldn’t have imagined. Down cobblestone alleyways, a bewitching hodgepodge of styles attested to the city’s many cultural affinities and long-ago occupiers: Persian and Ottoman domes neighboring Soviet towers and Art Nouveau mansions.

Brutalist monuments and Byzantine arches gave way to sleek modern villas and lovely row houses with traditional, ornately carved wooden balconies. We visited thermal bathhouses and colorful markets, hip boutiques and dusky cafes, greeted again and again by the almost ludicrously friendly locals. At night, our heads swam with the day’s discoveries—the city's gorgeous convergence of old and new—as we danced into the neon-lit Tbilisi night.

Centrally situated off the city's main boulevard, Rustaveli Avenue, Rooms Hotel Tbilisi is housed in a reclaimed eight-story Soviet-era publishing house that now has a new façade of reclaimed wood and black metal trim. Located in the thriving intellectual neighborhood of Vera, the property cleverly incorporates the building’s history into its design elements, resulting in an effortlessly stylish mix of old-world Tbilisi charm, New York-style art deco, and the youthful contemporary energy currently turning the Georgian capital into one of Europe's rising cultural hotspots. Richly textured leather, mood lighting, and dark velvets are enlivened by carefully selected sounds pumped in through a McIntosh sound system. Bellhops in Wes Anderson-esque retro-chic uniforms attend to international guests and fashionable Georgians alike, while on-site nouveau American restaurant “The Kitchen” concocts a delectable weekly menu using locally sourced ingredients.

“Every guest is sent from god.”

Georgian proverb

Forward-thinking entrepreneur Temur Ugulava is forging a new future for hospitality in Georgia by combining the traditional with the contemporary and stirring in a bit of authentic urbane glamour. With a passion for cultural authenticity and a unique, avant-garde approach to design, each property by his Adjara Group Hospitality is a proud showcase of a new Georgia. Ugulava opened his first, wildly successful Rooms Hotel Kazbegi in 2012, then followed it up with Rooms Hotel Tbilisi, a focal point for a new wave of thinkers, artists, and designers who are reclaiming the capital’s Vera district as a local cultural hub for the 21st century.