The Roswyn is not another bland & boring business hotel

The world over, a luxury business hotel has come to mean just one thing: a bland, uniform glass edifice that opens to beige rooms, pared-down interiors and clean white linens. It’s comfortable to stay, with a service that is mostly immaculate, but it doesn’t leave you with the intimacy of a boutique hotel that makes you feel at home.

But Roswyn—Ennismore’s first Morgans Originals address in India (and the fourth around the world) proves otherwise. Just minutes from Mumbai’s international airport, this all-suite hotel, which shares a wall with Fairmont, has 109 rooms, available as 1 or 2BHK spaces. Within this apartment-like layout is a kitchenette, a dedicated work area with touchscreen TV, and even a bar stocked with cocktail blends. Inside the bath, there’s Le Labo toiletries that are worth bringing back and Nespresso pods that will remind you of home. All this is to confirm that it carries the kind of swagger and soul that you almost never expect from a boring business hotel.

Three years in the making, the space is designed as an extension of a home, workspace, and local hangout, but with the creature comforts and service of a hotel. As with all Morgans Originals properties the world over, Roswyn’s interiors are design forward, and exude a maximalist mood board that is built around playful textures, graphic patterns and vibrant prints. There’s even a bit of Mumbai, if you look closely: in the lobby, carved wooden pieces are a nod to Mumbai’s Art Deco heritage, while along the corridors, there is a large photographic diptych of a Mumbai beach.

Each suite looks distinct, and is outfitted with brightly upholstered seating options and standout accent furniture. But the one thing that catches my eye is a family portrait that hangs on the wall, where the faces come layered with kantha and phulkari embroidery.

The credit for these artful touches goes to Parisian designer Daphné Desjeux, who along with art curator and artist Venu Juneja brought it all together. Desjeux brought her avant-garde aesthetic, while Juneja, who has also conceptualised and curated the art for the next-door Fairmont, brought in the Mumbai-inspired touches to the property. Together, they explored the city extensively–finding inspiration in the lanes of Chor Bazaar and along Colaba Causeway.

At Roswyn, everywhere you look, there is this pleasing amalgam of colour and art. But Desjeux insists that a space must tell a story about how people live and their culture, long before it passes the test of functionality or aesthetics. It’s a philosophy that runs through all her work—from Paris Society’s Mondaine to commercial spaces across Dubai, Sydney, Istanbul, and Marrakech. By designing statement furniture and light installations for every project, including this one in Mumbai, she’s created a business hotel that somehow has the potential to be an art-crowd hangout.

And you can see this across the three floors of Roswyn. The hotel’s in-house restaurant. Fi’lia, helmed by Chef Matteo Arvonio (his Dubai outpost has been on the Michelin list) mimics an Italian al fresco with its vibrant floral wallpapers, warm lighting and earthy tones. Go beyond this charming space and you will enter the hotel’s most vibey, vinyl bar called Black Lacquer where you can knock down sake shots and cocktails with yuzu and umeshu, with a very Japanese izakaya-like menu.

On the wall behind the bar, records—from Dean Martin’s Pretty Baby to Cerrone’s Love in C Minor—sit like a postcard montage. A smaller, more brightly lit space lies behind a shimmering brass chain. This is the Golden Room. Just big enough to host a small group or private gathering, this dramatic space features lights that mimic bubbles in a champagne glass.“The wall was inspired by the fringed dresses of Charleston dancers I loved as a child, and the lamp echoes the bubbles rising in a champagne glass,” shares Desjeux.

The mood switches completely when you step onto the first floor. Here lies The Third Room, which is actually the hotel’s business centre. The entire floor is dedicated to meeting rooms and workspaces but these look more like tasteful lounging areas than drab conference rooms. The interiors are a study in retro-futurist glamour, or as Desjeux tells me, a vibe straight out of Don Draper’s office in Mad Men. Think amber-lit ceilings, glossy dark finishes, cocoon-style seating, animal prints, rust-toned carpets, and low lighting. The space is open to all guests to bring in their colleagues. And in true Mad Men-style, there’s a bar set up in the middle of the floor.

After spending a day in Desjeux’s more-is-more style hotel, even seeing a fireplace in the lobby of a Mumbai hotel does not seem incongruous. “A fireplace in such a hot country was an insane idea but it was about creating a feeling and a mood. I always wanted the hotel to feel like a home away from home, and to me, fire is universal—it makes everyone feel good. The fireplace symbolizes the welcoming spirit we wanted the hotel to embody,” Desjeux shares about the hotel that wants to compete with a cozy home. 

Roswyn is at C06 At, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Mumbai, Terminal 2 For bookings, click here