Home Series with Sanne

Hi! My name is Sanne van der Velden, owner and founder of Travel WorldClass. It started as a hobby born out of a passion for beautiful luxury hotels and sharing them on Instagram. It has now grown into a comprehensive online inspiration platform for luxury hotels & lifestyle.

What is your favourite hotel?

As a hotel addict (haha), that's one of the toughest questions, but I think my favourite at the moment is Villa Lario on Lake Como. It's a new boutique-like hotel with an indescribably beautiful view of the lake.

What makes this your favourite hotel?

The view from the rooms overlooking the lake is breathtaking, and if you're lucky, you can witness a stunning sunset with cotton-candy-sky colors on a clear day. The rooms are extremely luxurious, featuring a daybed on the balcony and elegant doors. The lobby feels like coming home with a delightful lounge by the fireplace or on the adjacent terrace. The bar serves one of the tastiest Negronis, if you ask me. The hotel is still relatively unknown, making it a true hidden gem. A fun fact is that it overlooks George Clooney's house, so remember to bring binoculars ;)

How do you create that luxury hotel feel in your own bedroom?

Wherever I go, I photograph ideas that I find beautiful in hotels to incorporate them into my home, including the bedroom, of course. The first thing we did during the renovation was to add decorative moldings to the walls and install hotel-style switches for the lighting. The moldings immediately create an atmospheric setting, and the hotel-style switches allow you to control all the lighting from your bed, which is quite convenient. Additionally, I saw the idea of having an in-between curtain with a blackout curtain in a beautiful hotel in Madrid. This combination adds so much ambiance, especially when paired with the moldings. And, of course, a box spring was a must, along with the featherbed from DOUXE and matching bed linen. What a difference it makes, truly pure luxury every night.

How can you best describe your style? And how is this reflected in your bedroom?

Our style can best be described as classic-modern. We carried the decorative moldings from the living room to the hallway and the bedroom. This is combined with a classic herringbone parquet floor with a double black trim and a thin, wrought-iron handrail. In the bedroom, we used the same color tones on the walls as in the curtains downstairs, taupe and white.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

My biggest source of inspiration is definitely the (luxury) hotels I have the opportunity to stay in for Travel WorldClass. This allowed me to gather all these ideas into one bedroom. Additionally, I also draw a lot of inspiration from (how could it be otherwise) Pinterest and Elle Decor.

Do you have a bedtime ritual?

Not specifically for bedtime, but I do have one when I wake up. One thing that represents pure luxury to me in a hotel is the ability to make a cup of coffee in the room and start my skincare and makeup routine. Of course, this couldn't be missing in our own bedroom, so now I have my own mini bar.