How This Works

Black-owned hotels and resorts worth booking

Where you stay is a choice, and for a growing number of my clients it is one they want to make with intention. Booking Black-owned hotels and resorts is a quiet, meaningful way to let your travel dollars reflect your values, without giving up an ounce of luxury or comfort. Here is how I think about it, and how I help clients find and book these stays.

Kay JonesTravel Advisor & Retreat Curator · How This Works · 5 min read

A palm-shaded lounger and thatched umbrella on a white-sand Caribbean beach with turquoise water and green hills beyond — Luxury and intention are not a trade-off. You can have both. Image courtesy of Spice Island Beach Resort.

Why it matters, and why it is easy

Travel is one of the simplest ways to put your values into practice. Choosing a Black-owned hotel, resort, or villa directs your spending toward owners and communities who have long been underrepresented in luxury hospitality, and the properties themselves are wonderful. It asks nothing extra of you, and it means something: you were going to book a hotel anyway, so let that choice be an intentional one.

A calm open-air wellness deck facing the sea, set up for yoga at a Caribbean beach resort — Intentional does not mean less. The best of these stays are built for how you actually want to feel. Image courtesy of Spice Island Beach Resort.

What I look for

The bar is the same one I hold for every property I recommend: genuine hospitality, a beautiful and well-run stay, a location that fits the trip, and value for what you pay. From boutique city hotels to Caribbean beach resorts to design-forward villas, I look for places that would earn their place on any list, and happen to be Black-owned.

An elegant brick courtyard terrace set for dining at a boutique city hotel — From boutique city hotels to beach resorts, I hold these stays to the same standard as any property I recommend. Image courtesy of The Ivy Hotel.

Traveling with intention does not mean traveling with less. The best of these properties would earn their place on any list.

Where to find them

They span the map: elegant hotels in US cities, beach resorts across the Caribbean, safari and villa stays further afield. Many are independent and boutique, which is exactly the kind of property where a good advisor helps most, since they rarely turn up first in a search and often come with more when booked the right way.

A canopied safari-lodge suite opening onto a private deck and plunge pool above a river — Safari and villa stays further afield are where an advisor earns her keep. Image courtesy of African Bush Camps, Thorntree River Lodge.

How I help

Tell me where you are headed and what you want the trip to feel like, and I will bring you options that fit, including Black-owned properties, and handle the booking end to end. Reserving through my host agency, Fora, a Virtuoso agency, often adds resort credits, upgrades, and added value on top, so your intentional choice comes with the perks too.

Looking for specific properties? My guide to Black-owned hotels and resorts to visit, published for Fora, a Virtuoso agency, names places I love. Tell me your destination and I will match them to your trip.

Planning a group getaway or a women’s retreat with intention? Start with my Group Travel Planning Guide, or explore my retreats.

Plan an Intentional Trip

Photography courtesy of the properties: Spice Island Beach Resort, The Ivy Hotel, and African Bush Camps (Thorntree River Lodge).