Hotel Vmaison

Hotel Vmaison

Hotel Vmaison occupies an early-1900s townhouse in Messina, a short walk from the University of Messina and the Church of Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani. Breakfast is served each morning on The Roof, the hotel's top-floor terrace, in a city the hotel describes as a crossroads of the Mediterranean, within reach of Taormina and the Aeolian Islands. There are only ten rooms, spanning Superior, Deluxe, Junior Suite, Terrace Suite and a single Bedroom Suite, and every one of them was fitted by VMaison's own interior design studio, which sells the furniture in the rooms to guests who want it. Bathrooms are marble, stocked with Ortigia toiletries. That connection to an interior design house, rather than a hotel group, is the one thing setting Vmaison apart from the boutique competition around the strait. Guests also get a spa center, a doctor, a business center, a tour assistance desk, a bar and a restaurant, plus staff who work in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. Pets are welcome, transfers can be arranged, and there is a lift despite the building's age. None of this suits anyone chasing anonymous minibar efficiency or a group that needs more than ten rooms to book as a block. It suits solo travellers and couples who want a small, design-led base for exploring the strait, Taormina or the Aeolian ferries, more than families needing connecting rooms. Check-in runs from 2pm, check-out by noon, and an extra bed costs 20 EUR a night if the room category allows one. This is a hotel that thinks like a design studio first and a hotel second, which is exactly why none of the rooms feel like anywhere else in Messina. Ten rooms in an early-1900s Messina townhouse, furnished and sold by VMaison's own design studio, with breakfast on The Roof terrace near the strait. It suits solo travellers and couples wanting a small, design-led base close to Taormina and the Aeolian ferries, not families needing connecting rooms.