A building with as few sharp edges as possible. The corners are turned, the windows are large, and the staircases curve up through the floors so that no part of the hotel feels like a corridor.
FŌS — the Greek word for light — began as a small idea between a family from Athens and an old building on a quiet street in Gkazi. The neighbourhood had changed: the old gasworks were a museum now, the streets had filled with galleries and tavernas, and the building, an industrial shell from the 1950s, sat empty.
We asked Naia, a young Athens studio, to do as little as possible and as much as was needed. They took the building down to its bones, opened it to the south, curved its corners so the light could turn through the rooms, and gave us a rooftop where the city is laid out under your seat.
The hotel opened in the spring of 2024 with twenty-two rooms. We are independently owned and family-run, with a small team that knows every guest by name by the second morning of their stay. We hope you'll be one of them.
— Eleni & Nikos Vasilakis,
owners
A building with as few sharp edges as possible. The corners are turned, the windows are large, and the staircases curve up through the floors so that no part of the hotel feels like a corridor.
A short palette of materials chosen because they age well — Pentelic marble from the same quarries the Parthenon used, oiled walnut, lime-washed plaster, brass that will dull and then warm.
Light is the brief and the brand. Every room faces the morning. Window seats are deep enough to read in. The rooftop is open from dawn so you can drink your first coffee with the Acropolis ahead of you.
Everything a small hotel should have, nothing it shouldn't. Breakfast every morning, a gym in the basement, bicycles in the lobby, and a front desk that answers when you call from the airport.
A Greek-Mediterranean breakfast served on the second floor from 07:00 to 11:00 — fresh juices, fruit, yogurt, eggs to order, hot bread from the bakery on the corner, and proper espresso.
A small rooftop bar with twenty seats, a hot tub, and a planted ledge that looks back at the city. Greek wines and ouzo, small plates from the kitchen below, and a long view east to Lycabettus.
A small but well-equipped gym in the basement, open at all hours with your room key. Technogym cardio, free weights, a yoga corner, and a steam room next door for after.
Our front desk is also our concierge — Greek and English, with a notebook of restaurants, gallery openings, beaches, and the boatman who will take you to Aegina before breakfast.
Always-open coffee in the lobby, a small library of Athens books, bicycles to borrow, and a long table where you can sit and work in the morning before going out.
Italian cotton sheets, Pentelic marble bath, Naia-branded toiletries, filtered still and sparkling water on tap, smart climate control, and a pillow menu we don't make a fuss of but which works.
After 19:00 the bar fills up slowly. A small DJ on Fridays, candles on the planter ledge, a kitchen menu of small plates. The hot tub is open all day but most beautiful at sundown. Guests come up in their rooftop robes; we don't mind.
Six of us, plus the breakfast team and our weekend bartender Manolis.
Spent twelve years between Paris and London hotels before returning to Athens to open this one. Will book your dinner. Speaks French.
The half of the family that fixes things. An architect by training. Knows every plumber in this part of Athens.
Athens born, Berlin trained. The notebook of restaurants, galleries and weekend trips is hers.
Our welcome offer is three nights for the price of two — including breakfast and our concierge's notebook.