Taking one step beyond the threshold of the new Hotel Daphne in the Heights is — in a word — transformative. Layered with handcrafted details, various textiles, warm-natured tones, and vintage and custom pieces that embrace contemporary whimsy, Houston’s newest property from Austin-based company Bunkhouse Hotels has truly outdone itself.
The five story, 49-room property features an all-day restaurant called Hypsi, along with a picturesque walled-courtyard, jewel-box library, lobby retail shop, and a perfectly-curated art collection that could easily rival the best galleries. Those looking to make a splash will be delighted to know that a pool, dedicated outdoor bar, and 10 poolside bungalow suites are currently in the works to open in the spring of 2027. Hotel Daphne is Bunkhouse’s second Houston property, joining the Hotel Saint Augustine that opened in Montrose in 2024 and earned a prestigious Michelin Key in October.
Setting itself apart from other new build properties, Hotel Daphne has taken painstakingly-precise care not to have disturbed the numerous mature Live Oak trees surrounding the building, giving the hotel a “we’ve always been here” quality that locals can appreciate. Those very trees inspired the hotel’s name, after Daphne of Greek mythology, who famously changed herself into a laurel tree and represents allure and restraint.
“With Hotel Daphne, we set out to create a project that bridges Houston Heights’ eclectic energy with its residential roots to seamlessly blend into the surrounding landscape,” Timothy Blanchard, founder, principal architect, Blanchard A+D tells CultureMap. “Drawing on the area’s commercial and historic cues, we shaped the building around large heritage oak trees to create a place that feels welcoming, restrained, and quietly refined.”
The hotel’s exterior features stepped parapets, dark steel sash windows, and soft gray shutters that bridge the scale between neighboring bungalows and historic industrial structures. Local landscape firm McDugald Steele rounds out the exteriors team with lush selections befitting the building and playing nicely with native surroundings, while giving nods to the Heights’ architectural charm and its origins as a utopian society founded in the 1890’s.
Bunkhouse designed the interiors in-house, with 80 percent of the furniture and decor designed and selected during the initial design phase, leaving the remaining 20 percent to be selected post buildout. Select pieces like the show-stopping, circular modular sofa in the lobby, were sourced during the recent Round Top Fall Antiques Show. Situated beneath a vintage Murano chandelier, the sofa’s striped linen has been swapped for a more commercial-friendly Gem Velvet from Brentano, while the exposed sides have been dressed in a playfully-patterned Bargello from Nobilis. Suffice it to say: she’s Instagram-ready.
“We always like to keep a healthy mix of vintage. When everything is custom or off the shelf, the end result can feel planned, prescriptive, and a little too perfect. Leaving room for the unplanned is where a dose of magic happens,” explains Tenaya Hills, head of design for Bunkhouse Hotels and JdV by Hyatt. “If you use up every inch of space with things you decided months before, you lose the creativity that hits you while you’re out shopping for vintage, or even when you’re sitting around with your team in the finished space thinking, ‘Okay, what does this space actually need?’ And also — it’s just fun.”
A right turn off of the lobby leads to Hotel Daphne’s library. Absolutely drenched in a gorgeous, high-gloss blue, the impressive cabinets and bookcases house everything from books to ceramics and found objects — feel free to grab a book off the shelf and get cozy. Grounded by a handwoven rug by Shame Studios, the library offers three custom tables for gaming, providing an onyx chess set, marble checkers, and one table left bare for board games or other amusements. The library’s French doors can be closed off for private events, meetings, and dinners as well.
Rounding out the first floor, Italian-style restaurant Hypsi, led by two-time James Beard Award nominee Terrence Gallivan, nods to the area’s Prohibition-era supper club history. Opulent and playful details include a blueberry lava stone bar outfitted with leather Cassina chairs, an indoor fireplace framed by an antique mantel, banquettes piled with psychedelic pillows, vintage Gerli chairs reupholstered in velvet, and custom Carimate dining chairs by Vico Magistretti.
Hypsi’s adjoining vine-wrapped courtyard and Hotel Daphne patio offer outdoor dining. Playful Gubi patio furniture, paired with vintage, mosaic-tiled tables hand-painted to depict nymphs and the like, is available for more informal lounging. Remember those books in the library? Pair one with a cocktail or coffee while taking in an afternoon breeze.
The remaining four floors are all guest rooms. Hotel Daphne offers a robust selection of double-queen rooms and single-king rooms, with both configurations available in ADA options. Select rooms, like the Terrace King Rooms, offer outdoor balconies. The Terrace King Premiere is 890 square feet, featuring a king bed, lounge area, workspace, and a terrace with dining and lounge furniture — perfect for entertaining a small group outdoors.
Larger groups may opt for one of the two suites. The Balcony Suite is 850 square feet, featuring a king bed, a bistro table with seating, a parlor room with lounge area, dining table for six, wet bar, and a Juliet balcony. The Penthouse Suite is 1,150 square feet, featuring two rooms with king beds, plus a lounge area, a parlor room, dining table for eight, lounge area, wet bar, and two bathrooms. The Penthouse Suite is a three-key suite and each space can be booked individually.
Guest rooms feature custom upholstered beds with floral velvet headboards inspired by Trebah Gardens. In fact, the fabric itself is Trebah Velvet by Osborne & Little.
“We love that fabric and it brought exactly the mood we were looking for,” explains Hills. “Against the room’s more classic backdrop, we wanted an element that felt a little trippy and not-so-perfect, something that captured the spirit of the hotel. The pattern has this dreamy, slightly surreal quality that lets a subtle, ethereal, almost acid trip note come through. The hotel takes inspiration from the Heights’ beginnings as a planned utopian community, but we’ve layered in its history of 1930s clandestine drinking culture and the patina of time to a home that would have occurred on that original idealism. Trebah felt like the perfect way to thread those stories together, refined on the surface, with a little fray underneath.”
The beds are all dressed in luxe Sferra linens (bath towels are also Sferra), and rooms are additionally outfitted with mohair seating, Arts & Crafts-style credenzas, plus natural stone tables and vintage finds. Adjoining bathrooms are wrapped in rich green Fireclay tiles that play magnificently with onyx vanities. Hotel Daphne’s signature amenities are by Dr. Vranjes of Florence, Italy, and are available for purchase in the lobby’s gift shop, including its signature scent, Dr. Vranjes’ Onyx Rose Tobacco.
Also available in the gift shop are Hotel Daphne’s signature guest room robes. Collecting robes from Bunkhouse properties has become somewhat of a thing, to say the least.
“Bunkhouse has a tradition of creating a custom robe for every property, says Hills. “Daphne’s robe was inspired by vintage men’s pajamas, designed to bring a masculine touch to balance the softer, feminine details throughout the rooms. Its striped pattern and colorway were directly drawn from the Trebah Velvet fabric used on the headboards. This connection makes the robe feel distinct but fully integrated with the overall guest room palette.”
If the carpeting looks familiar, it’s not a trick of the mind. The spaces not clad in brass-inlaid, herringbone wood floors are swathed in patterned carpeting inspired by William Morris’ iconic “Strawberry Thief” pattern, but adjusted and created using AI — that’s certainly one way to mix old with new.
In an interesting twist to Bunkhouse tradition, a substantial portion of the art on display is held in a private collection. Hotel owner Ben Ackerley and his father will rotate select pieces from the Ackerley Family Collection for guests of the hotel to enjoy. Bunkhouse art director Dina Pugh sourced works by Austin-based painter Alexandra Valenti that are on display in the guest rooms and hallways.
An additional 160 works of art in the property belong to the Ackerley Family Collection. In January of this year, Hesse McGraw, formerly executive director of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, came on as Hotel Daphne’s art director. Find works by Vernon Fisher and Kent Dorn on display in the hotel’s lobby, plus artists Kelli Vance and Dorothy Hood on view in the library. The giant Matt Kleberg overlooking the dining room at Hypsi is on loan from Houston’s Hiram Butler Gallery until January, when a commissioned work by the same artist will be completed. The untitled work will be difficult to miss with its 15’ x 8’ stature.
Ackerley believes that sharing his family’s collection with the city will benefit living, Texas-based artists in a myriad of ways, especially by putting them in front of other potential collectors.
“99-percent of collectors have no relation to the artists. They look at it as an investment and have no emotional connection to the work or the person behind it,” says Ackerley. “Whereas, we collect people we hang out with. We support living, contemporary Texas artists, and 80-percent of what you’ll see in this hotel is that — there is plenty of cool art.”
Bunkhouse was purchased by Hyatt Hotels in October 2024, but there are no signs of Hyatt branding in the hotel. The plus is that rooms can be booked with points through Hyatt’s rewards program. Rooms at Hotel Daphne begin at $359 per night.
