House & Garden: May 2006

Peter Hughes suggests books and websites to guide you to the right hotels for stylish frolics

Hotels are like handbags.  Essentially containers, they have attained acrophobia-inducing heights of fashion, and sometimes equally giddying heights of expense.  Unlike handbags, hotels have a wealth of directories, online and in print, to help you find one.  But if hotels are fashion items, so are the guides: your choice of publication can say as much about you as where you end up staying.  Here's a selection.

Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection (Spy Publishing)  The coy title of this series craftily hints at anonymity for hotel inspectors and nooky for the guests.  The places listed here are smart boltholes for stylish frolics.  There are two printed guides - UK/Ireland (£19.95) and European Cities (£24.95).  A third, Coast to Country, is published this autumn.  Two hotel collections - Boutique Bed and Breakfast and European Coastline - are only available online.  For further details, visit www.mrandmrssmith.com