Just as the design of airport facilities increasingly embraces aspects of local culture, materials, and terrain (for example, the recently expanded main terminal at Portland International Airport, with its mass timber roof sourced from local forests), airport-connected hotels are also incorporating regional touches in everything from their façades down to the offerings at their restaurants. The following five hotels are all designed to draw on the appeal of their specific locales and offer a wide range of amenities and event facilities—plus the ultimate luxury, a short walk from guest room to terminal.
1. Comfort Hotel Arlanda Airport
Sigtuna, Sweden
Opened in 2020, the Comfort Hotel Arlanda Airport is the first major building in a 2,153,000 square foot (200,000 sq m) mixed-use district underway at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Placed between two terminals, and a short walk from a train station connecting passengers to downtown Stockholm, the 500-plus-room hotel consists of two intersecting volumes: one 13 stories tall and the other 10 stories tall, organized around an urban square. Local developer Swedavia Real Estate AB asked Stockholm-based BAU to design the building to convey an international feeling while expressing a Nordic character.
The architects clad the façade with folded ALUCOBOND panels that reflect the region’s changing light, which turns the building a warm gold in the morning and deep blue in the evening. A triple-glazed window system with a ventilated cavity and automatic sunshades moderates interior temperatures. The prefabricated concrete structure provides strong acoustic protection. When complete, the district is also slated to contain offices, restaurants, shops, and conference facilities.
2. Hilton BNA Nashville Airport Terminal
Nashville, Tennessee
The Hilton BNA Nashville Airport Terminal hotel is the centerpiece of the $3 billion airport renovation and expansion of the Nashville International Airport. Opened in 2024, the 298-key hotel rises 10 stories above a four-story parking structure and embodies aviation themes throughout, including a flight-themed ballroom light fixture, art in guest rooms and corridors that draws inspiration from air travel, and event spaces that honor aviation pioneers George Cayley and the Wright Brothers.
A lounge in the lobby hosts live musical performances several nights a week, capitalizing on the city’s famous music scene. The large rooftop lounge and bar offer panoramic views of the runways and the city’s skyline. The façade’s precast concrete panels provide a high degree of acoustic—as well as thermal—insulation. Moody Nolan’s local office and Rabun Architects of Atlanta designed the hotel for Chartwell Hospitality of Franklin, Tennessee, and Rockbridge of Columbus, Ohio.
3. Hyatt Regency Shenzhen Airport
Shenzhen, China
A large, private, outdoor garden serves as a place for the Hyatt Regency Shenzhen Airport’s guests to relax—or throw a wedding banquet. The hotel offers its own catering team and on-site wedding planners. The 335-room hotel includes 18,000 square feet (1,670 sq m) of event spaces. The largest ballroom can hold as many as a thousand guests. In designing the building, the local office of CCD/Cheng Chung Design reinterpreted the local traditions of Lignan and Cantonese architecture in a contemporary way. For example, lattices suspended throughout the lobby recall door panels found in Cantonese dwellings.
An indoor corridor gives guests a five-minute walk to the arrival/departure hall. Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows that provide views either of the airport or of the city. The 11th-floor Regency Club lounge lets guests watch planes taking off and landing. Restaurants and bars in the hotel focus on regional cuisines. Owner Shenzhen Airport Group opened the facility in 2018.
4. InterContinental Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota
That the InterContinental Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport Hotel is meant to embody Minnesota becomes visible to air travelers even before they land: Illuminated with blue LED lights, the 12-story hotel’s folded glass curtain wall references the state’s 10,000 lakes. The local branch of RSP Architects, which designed the building, specified Minnesota-mined Kasota stone for the walls of the lobby. Even the menu at the hotel’s La Voya Brasserie gives traditional French dishes a Minnesotan twist.
The interior affords views of the Mississippi River as well as the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A penthouse observation deck bar grants even better views of the Twin Cities, as well as of the runways. The hotel connects to Terminal 1’s Concourse C via a skybridge that has its own TSA checkpoint, providing guests with easy access to their gates. Developed by local firm Graves Hospitality and financial partner Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, headquartered in Boston, the 291-room hotel opened in 2018.
5. Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport
Auckland, New Zealand
The black tiles that clad the façade of the Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport hotel reference the feathers of a korowai, the royal ceremonial cloak of the local Tainui tribal confederation. The golden soffit that runs from the building’s exterior to the interior represents the cloak’s inner lining. These two elements are just some of the many ways that the hotel’s design incorporates the culture of the Tainui, who first arrived at adjacent Manukau Harbor in the 1300s. Auckland Airport formed a joint venture with the confederation’s commercial arm, Tainui Group Holdings, to create the 311-room hotel.
Opened in 2023, the building has a curving, three-pointed star shape, each spur pointing toward a significant site in the story of the Tainui’s journey. Architecture firm Warren and Mahoney and interior design firm Space Studio, both local, worked with the Tainui throughout the design process. Space Studio worked with a Tainui master carver to incorporate carved designs into the interiors. The restaurant and bar on the top floor offer views of the runways and harbor.
