ME Barcelona

Class: Deluxe

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 259

Dominique Perrault's trademark skyscraper was Barcelona's most anticipated new-build of 2008. Rising 120 metres into the air, it is sheathed in two 'skins': one of glass, the other of metal mesh. When Mallorca's Sol Meliá Group acquired it for their portfolio of next-generation business hotels, they wanted to create something fun and sexy rather than corporate. The Sky Food Restaurant and Bar in the lobby is laid-back and seductive, with creamy-white sofas and lollipop-coloured perspex walls; the food is great, the prices fair and the cocktails worthy of the best New York bars. For something more serious, head for Dos Cielos restaurant on the 25th floor, where the new-wave Mediterranean cuisine is sensational and there's a terrace open to the stars. All the white-on-white rooms have Nespresso machines, iPod docks, Nintendo Wii and Smeg maxi-bars filled with Champagne, condoms and bottled oxygen. The Angels and Kings Club on the sixth floor is owned by the US pop star Pete Wentz, and there's a metallic swimming pool surrounded by cabana daybeds, as well as a YHI Spa.