SLS Cancun

TRIED AND TESTED HOTELS

- Tom Otley

BACKGROUND

This new property from SBE Hotels opened in February. SBE is now owned by Accor after the French group bought 50 per cent of the brand in 2018 and then bought the rest while also merging with Ennismore. Among the SBE brands are Mondrian, Delano, Hyde Hotels and SLS. They are all very fashionable, or, as SBE would have it, they represent “a global tribe of individuals, partners and progressives”.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

The hotel is located on the first four floors of a 20-storey L-shaped building facing the Caribbean Sea and the entrance to the marina. The other levels contain luxury apartments. These have a separate entrance around the corner from the hotel so you don’t mingle with the owners in the lifts, although they do have the use of the pool, restaurants and gym.

I stayed in late April. While many of the apartments had been sold by then, they were yet to be occupied so it was very quiet. Security is very reassuring – you go through two attended gates before pulling up at the hotel.

The interior design is by Italy’s Piero Lissoni and has been beautifully done, with low sofas decked out with cushions in alternating pastel and bright colours. The seating area just off the lobby has a pool table and shelves with coffee-table books.

WHERE IS IT?