BOHEMIAN Rhapsody

At a jewel box of a hotel in Mexico City, lush pleasures come in an exquisite package

- Claire Howorth

WHEN REAL ESTATE developer Octavio Aguilar saw the decadent Mexico City mansion at Luis G Urbino 84, home to only two families since it was built in the 1940s, he knew it would be a hotel, his hotel. Lodging had never been a part of Aguilar’s portfolio, but he’d spent his whole life traveling around the world, developing a passion for boutique hotels along the way. One trip he took as a teenager with his mother and sister, to France’s Loire Valley, was particularly foundational—they stayed in three smaller spots, he says, never needed a reservation, and the service was perfect and personal. When he got older, he’d flip through the Relais & Châteaux book to find the places he thought “had the most character.”