Y’all, Hotel Swexan may be the Best Hotel in Dallas
Absolutely astounding.
Staying at the Hotel Swexan this weekend was an honest surprise from the perspective of a longtime local returning for a family affair. The 2024 and now 2025 Michelin key holder certainly is holding onto that designation with a vice grip.
Complimentary dog walking, welcome and turndown service (with a 1/1 lovely handwritten note for each of the 134 rooms and 8 suites, complete with little chocolate squares), food with an Asian Texan fusion, rooftop pool overlooking Dallas’s Uptown and Victory neighbors - and above all, some of the best service I have encountered in the world. While pricing may be steep for some starting at about $450 a night, this is well worth it.
From chatting with a pro baseball player in the lobby resting pre-surgery, to rubbing shoukders with the high level CEO’s coming through for important business, everyone is treated with the exact same lovely way by this staff, even me — a young degenerate writer. I don’t know what the training is behind the hospitality and service practice here, but what I will tell you is anyone who is in the hospitality industry needs to come here to see how Swexan does it. For anyone delving into the world of hospitality, this is definitely a place you need to take notes from.
I guess I’ll define it as Swexan Speak. The southern hospitality with a nice Texas twang complete with European pillars of service is strong with every single team member. Not a single team member wavered in this ideal in my experience here so far.
Our party had a pizza bar up at the Pomelo, where cheese, pepperoni, and sausage pies were there at your service — and even custom pizzas were available to be made for sharing (chicken, ranch, and spinach, anyone?). Oeur d'oeuvres at our private party at Pomelo were astounding as well with one bite sliders, mini ahi tacos, noodle cold rolls, mini hot dogs, and chicken skewers that were finger licking good. The hostesses who were on plate duty were fun, personable, and made notes of who had favorite bites so they can sneak another round to them.
Speaking of finger licking good, one of our family dogs was allowed up on the rooftop with us and of course was the life of the party. With plenty of smells, water available, and fairly relaxed ground rules (no doggies up on the furniture at Pomelo!), your pet will have a stellar time here.
Pomelo, Hotel Swexan’s Exclusive Rooftop bar was fast, stylish, classic, and swanky. While I did not get all the bartenders names, Justin while we were there was a showstopper with his banter, light flame, and heavenly mixology.
Our suite was complete with details like a Marshall Bluetooth speaker in the suite, charging cords already provided in each room (USB-C, lightning, micro usb) stunning views, and quite possibly one of the best mini bars I have ever seen. Housekeeping was stellar, everything tidied neatly with service multiple times a day. They even folded our clothes for us, a complete surprise.
Bathrooms are spacious. The shower has great water pressure, hotter than hell temperature, vegan toiletries, and shower system complete with a rainfall shower head and adjustable hand shower. Towels are abundant, robes and slippers are also outfitted in suite.
I noticed that the cookies were small batch from Napa-Sonoma county and had that crisp buttery handmade taste. Now as a longtime Bay Area resident, a taste of back west was what I needed to close out the evening. I have yet to try the Harwood beef jerky, but it looks Dallas made and as a fellow jerky lovin’ Texan — I loooove that.
First night at the Swexan was a raging success for my personal journey on finding some of the best service in the world. Hotel Swexan also has proven their Michelin Key status strongly with the atmosphere, attention to detail, and unique service tailored to each and every guests needs.
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