Créme de la Curator

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Palais de Tokyo cofounder Jerome Sans has been assembling an all-star cast of artists to reimagine Le Meridien. | Jo Magrean

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Le Meridian's brand honcho Eva Ziegler, pictured here in a hotel room in Paris, has been the champion of its artist-driven strategy. | Jo Magrean

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To make these transformations more than cosmetic, employees from front-desk clerks to housekeepers are now required to visit the local art institution they're sending guests to and are educated on each of the LM100 artists. "We're creating these things so we can talk to guests about something other than just, 'How was your journey?' " Ziegler says. Martin Vitry, a 35-year-old real-estate investor from Paris, stayed at Le Meridien's Miami location last December when visiting the city for Art Basel. "I travel two or three times a month and am used to the same old experience," he says. Awed by the 10-foot-by-40-foot blue-tinted Sam Samore photograph dominating the window at the hotel's entrance, Vitry notes, "It almost made me feel like I was entering an art gallery." Five months later, Vitry still carries the Samore-designed room key in his wallet and is wrangling his friends for a return trip.

That's exactly the kind of engagement hoteliers crave. In 2007, that "upper upscale" hotel segment generated $22.7 billion in U.S. room revenue, but occupancy was flat. "The pool of new travelers isn't increasing as quickly as the number of new hotels," says Jan Freitag, an analyst at Smith Travel Research.

But Le Meridien is already seeing results. In February, its online bookings hit a record 2.4 million, 41% higher than at the same time last year. And it will continue to track success by monitoring guest satisfaction and sales of retail spin-offs from its LM100 collaborations. "The old-school version of this would have been to put together a committee, redesign the hotel, and that's it," says brand maven Addis. "Instead, these guys are going to be perpetually curating on behalf of -- not marketing at -- its audience."