In the age of algorithms, hotel libraries are an act of resistance

For a long time, years-old magazines and leather-bound, decorative tomes were the hotelier’s reading material of choice for guests – alongside holy books in the bedside table. A Penguin paperback left on a desk was more of an afterthought than a statement. But, lately, something has shifted.

Now, hotels are increasingly treating their libraries as they treat their art collections: with curatorial intention, provenance and a coherent point of view. Behind this shift are practitioners who have made hotel books their entire professional focus – people who believe that a well-chosen library can communicate something no interior designer, concierge or digital experience can.

Walk into the library at Brown's Hotel in London, for example, and you will find in the Kipling Suite a wide selection of Rudyard Kipling's books, because he wrote The Jungle Book in this very building. That collection is there because Lady Olga Polizzi, director of design and deputy chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels, put it there deliberately, as an act of literary homage and historical grounding.

Cross the Mediterranean to Villa Igiea in Palermo and you will find The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa on the shelf, because no book captures the spirit of Sicily so well.

“I always research and respect the locations where we have hotels in,” says Lady Polizzi, who has spent decades building Rocco Forte's collections personally, property by property. “The books I choose mostly reflect that. They are often books by famous local writers, allowing any guest who picks them up to get a good feel for where they are.”

On the other side of the Mediterranean, in the Gulf, Shadi Moazami has built a business on the same conviction. The founder of Chapter, a newly launched literary consultancy that works with hotels to build and programme book collections, Moazami spent years in hospitality communications – and she noticed the same thing over and over. “I would visit beautiful hotels with extraordinary architecture, interiors and art collections,” she recalls, “yet the books often felt like an afterthought. Sometimes they were chosen for their covers, or simply to fill a shelf, rather than for what they might contribute to the experience.”

Now, when choosing books for a property, Moazami says they work to understand its story, its location, the people behind it and “the experience it hopes to create”. The research phase, she adds, is her favourite part. “We look for a balance of familiar and unexpected titles, contemporary writing and older works, beautiful editions and books that invite genuine reading. Depending on the project, we might also explore rare books, out-of-print titles or works by local authors.”

The sourcing is equally complex – working across local and international booksellers, handling Arabic titles with particular care around publisher, edition and translation, and managing the Gulf's specific environmental challenges for older and more delicate editions. Heat, humidity and direct sunlight can damage books over time, which makes placement and storage important considerations.

It’s important to strike a balance. “We have such a rich history of storytelling in the Middle East, alongside a wonderfully international audience,” Moazami says. “We believe that a hotel library should offer a sense of place, but without becoming overly literal. In the Gulf, there is an extraordinary wealth of literature, poetry, history, art and cultural traditions to draw from – and so of course Arabic literature and regional voices should be part of that story.”

But a collection should not be restricted by geography, says Moazami. “The joy of a library is in the connections it creates between different cultures, periods and ideas. Ultimately, we want our collections to feel rooted in its location while remaining open to the wider world.”

Location matters just as much as content, too, she adds. “It’s also about creating permission to engage. If a book is placed somewhere inviting, rather than on an inaccessible shelf, people are far more likely to pick it up.”

For Lady Polizzi, the process has always been more instinctive – guided by her own deep love of reading and her understanding of each property's specific character.

“I have always loved a good book, although I wish I had more time to read,” she tells The National. “I love the feel books add to a space; they make it feel more comfortable and interesting. At Rocco Forte Hotels, we always aim to create a strong sense of place, with each property reflecting the character, history and culture of its location, while also feeling like a home. I think books play an important part in achieving this, adding a personal touch and helping to bring the character of each hotel to life.”

At the same time, she has practical considerations. “I normally tend to choose shorter books, or ones that a guest can pick up and enjoy for half an hour, whether that's just reading a few chapters or a short story,” she says.

One unexpected success in Rocco Forte's collections has been PG Wodehouse, which features across several properties. “All our guests seem to enjoy PG Wodehouse,” Lady Polizzi says. “He was extraordinarily amusing and a few chapters will immediately put the reader in a good mood.”

In the age of digital, a curated, in-real-life library is much more personal than the abundance of reading on screens and relying on an algorithm to suggest ‘more of the same’, says Lady Polizzi. “Physical books also tend to support more focused reading than screens do. Overall, books are more precious now, particularly if they are well chosen and in the right place at the right time.”

Moazami sees the hotel library as something more ambitious still: a cultural institution in miniature. “Books have a life beyond the shelf,” she says. “They can bring people together, encourage curiosity and become part of a place's cultural identity.” The chapter's offer extends beyond collections to what Moazami calls Conversations and Legacy – author events, literary salons, commissioned works, archives. The library as a living thing, not a static installation.

“No two projects should ever feel alike,” she says. “Each collection begins with its own story, and the challenge is finding the books that tell it best.”

The measure of success, Moazami says, is the guest’s reaction. “If a guest discovers a new author, spends an unexpected afternoon reading or asks where they can buy a particular title, we would consider that a success.”

Yet a truly great library should never feel complete, she adds, and she’d rather see a smaller, more thoughtful collection than hundreds of books that have no relationship with the space or the people using it. “A good library shouldn’t feel entirely finished on the day a hotel opens, but should have room to grow.”

Katy Gillett