W São Paulo Hotel Review: The W We Didn't See Coming
- Location: Google Maps
- Book: W Sao Paulo
- Room: Supreme Suite – King Size Bed, City view, One Bedroom, 2 Bathroom, massive Living Room, Dinning Room
- Hotel Score: 9.68/10 — See Full Breakdown
- Photos: View Photo Gallery
- VIP Luxury Program: Marriott STARS & Luminous
- Classic Travel: Request Complimentary Membership
Hotel Fun Fact: The first W Hotel ever opened in New York City in 1998 — and the W brand spent the next two decades expanding aggressively before the market shifted and properties started closing or converting to other brands. What’s remained open is now going through a wave of full renovations under the new W design direction, and the São Paulo property is one of the first to complete that transformation entirely.
What Makes the W São Paulo Stand Out
- Fully renovated — the new W design at its best
- Most W Hotels still in business are mid-renovation. São Paulo is one of the rare few that’s fully complete, and walking through it you immediately understand why the new direction is so much stronger than what came before.
- Supreme Suite — champagne mirrors, ceiling TV, two hidden bathrooms
- A suite configuration unlike anything we’ve encountered. Mirrored doors that reveal a walk-in bathroom and then a bedroom beyond. A TV mounted from the ceiling. A second bathroom hidden behind a door on the other side of the bed. It rewards exploration.
- The main restaurant spans two floors of the 23rd floor, with multiple seating environments and a wraparound bar that reminded us of Josephine at One&Only Moonlight Basin. Check out the bathrooms — they’re worth the detour.
- L40 rooftop — Michelin-style dinner into a DJ night
- Dinner on the 40th floor, then bracelets at the table for free entry into the Wet pool club. We skipped the Bombay Sapphire sponsor gin and went straight to Veuve Clicquot at a VIP table. The hotel took care of the whole night.
- Away Spa + US3 Beauty Salon + Fit Gym
Before You Arrive — Key Facts About the W São Paulo
- Check-in is on the 24th floor — not the ground floor. You’re escorted from the lobby up to reception, which gives you an immediate view of the city during the check-in process. The hotel shares the building with residences, so the upper floors are reserved for hotel guests.
- The Supreme Suite has two hidden bathrooms — one between the living room and bedroom, one behind a door on the far side of the bed. We didn’t discover the second one for a good 30 minutes. Explore the room before assuming you’ve seen everything.
- The bedroom TV is mounted from the ceiling on a pole — not sitting on a hutch or credenza. You have a full unobstructed view from the bed and more floor space than any other room configuration we’ve seen. A simple idea that should be more common.
- English-speaking staff in São Paulo can be harder to find than in Rio. The W São Paulo is well-staffed for English, but throughout our broader Brazil trip this was a consistent friction point worth knowing about in advance.
- Wet pool on the rooftop is open during the day for relaxing and sunbathing with city views. In the evening it transitions into an event space — DJ sets on weekends. Dinner at L40 Restaurant gives you bracelets for free entry into the evening event.
- The US3 Beauty Salon inside Away Spa offers haircuts, blowouts, barber-style trims, beard shaving, and possibly nails. This isn’t a standard hotel spa gift shop — it’s a proper boutique salon. Get a tour of it even if you’re not booking a service.
- The gym, called Fit, takes up half the floor — Pelotons, full weight training, cardio, everything. One of the most well-decorated hotel gyms we’ve encountered. It doesn’t feel like something thrown together, which is unfortunately the standard at many hotels.
- BAIO Restaurant on floor 23 is connected to the 24th floor lobby via a spiral staircase — you can walk between check-in and the main restaurant without using the elevator. Also: check out the restaurant bathrooms. They’re better than most hotel common areas.
24‑hour room service
Bar
Golf
House car
Meeting rooms
Outdoor pool
Restaurants
Spa
Other Local Luxury Resorts
The Luxe Atlas Rating
Design
Vibe
Romantic
A/C
Room
Food
Location
Fitness
Cleanliness
Wow Factor
9.78 / 10
The Luxury Travel Atlas Rating
Arriving at the W São Paulo — Escorted to the 24th Floor and Already Impressed
The staff at check-in was kind and spoke excellent English, which stood out specifically because throughout our broader time in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, finding English-speaking help had been more of a challenge than we’d expected. Even at other hotels, it sometimes felt like only a handful of dedicated staff were equipped for it. At the W São Paulo it wasn’t an issue at all.
As expected, our room wasn’t quite ready — the standard experience when you book through a luxury travel partner like Classic Travel, since the team is arranging welcome amenities and personalizing the room before you walk in. So we headed down to Yoso Bar for a late lunch while we waited. When the keys were ready, we went straight up to the 35th floor.
The Supreme Suite — Champagne Mirrors, a Ceiling-Mounted TV, and Two Bathrooms We Had to Discover
The design aesthetic is modern but warm — lots of natural and neutral colors, the kind of palette that reminded us more of an Aman hotel than the W brand we’d known historically. A wraparound couch anchored the sitting area, and built into the wall directly behind it was the desk — a smart choice that gave the desk its own presence without turning the room into an office.
Beyond that, a large dining room table with seating for six to eight people, a chandelier overhead, and behind the dining area, walls finished in a beautiful champagne mirror that gave the room depth and a dark elegance without feeling heavy.
Next to the dining table was a large armoire with all the traditional snacks, drinks, refrigerator, and additional storage — well-placed for an extended stay. The windows were automated, with both shading and full blackout curtains available when you needed them.
Now — the champagne mirrored doors. Those walls we mentioned? They’re doors. Hidden in plain sight. Opening one of them led directly into a large walk-in bathroom positioned between the living room and the bedroom. Inside: a gigantic freestanding stone bathtub, a private sink, and a toilet. No shower in this bathroom — all of that space went toward the tub and the generous floor plan, and it was worth it.
The idea of having a bathroom that guests can use from the living room without ever accessing the bedroom was genuinely well thought out. We definitely used that bathtub.
Through another champagne mirrored door on the far side of the bathroom, the bedroom opened up. Generous in size, with each side of the bed having its own personal plug-ins including USB ports, side tables, and a speaker for music.
The large armoire was well-positioned with plenty of hangers, shoe shining kits, and the full standard of a luxury room. The walls continued the same champagne mirror look from the living area — dark feel, but the mirrors create depth and make the space read larger than it is.
And then there was the second bathroom — the one we didn’t find for about 30 minutes. On the far side of the bed, what looks like another mirrored panel is actually a hidden door. Behind it: a full secondary bathroom with its own vanity, toilet, and a massive walk-in shower with windows inside.
All marble — walls, floor, shower enclosure, toilet surround — which elevated everything in a way that felt genuinely considered rather than standard. Having our own separate bathrooms across a shared suite is one of those things that sounds indulgent until you’ve experienced it, and then you don’t want to go back.
- Explore the suite fully before assuming you’ve seen everything. The two hidden mirrored door bathrooms and the ceiling-mounted TV are the features that make this room distinctive, and if you don’t find them, you’ve missed the best parts of the Supreme Suite experience.
Three Venues — A Lobby Bar, a Two-Story Restaurant, and a Michelin-Style Rooftop Dinner That Turned Into a Party Night
Yoso Bar — Lobby Level
24th floor lobby level · Cocktails, lunch options
BAIO Restaurant
23rd floor · Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner · Spiral staircase up to lobby
L40 Restaurant — 40th Floor Rooftop
L40 is the rooftop restaurant on the 40th floor — indoor seating with access to the Wet pool and, as the evening progresses on weekends, a full DJ night in the outdoor space. The dinner menu is completely different from anything else in the hotel — steaks and fresh seafood at a Michelin-adjacent level that surprised us for a hotel rooftop. We really enjoyed both.
After dinner, the restaurant team came to our table and put bracelets on our wrists — complimentary entry into Wet for the evening. We settled into a VIP table, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot arrived, and house music came from the DJ. The night had been sponsored by Bombay Sapphire, but we had no interest in gin when Veuve was on the table. We didn’t need to book a club, arrange transport, or figure out a separate venue — the entire party night happened 40 floors up without ever leaving the hotel. That’s exactly the W experience at its best.
Wet Pool, Away Spa, US3 Beauty Salon, and a Gym That Belongs in New York City
The W São Paulo’s wellness and amenity floor is one of the most complete hotel setups we’ve encountered — not just in terms of what’s available, but in how well it’s all executed and designed. Three connected experiences share the same floor, and each one is worth your time.
Wet Pool — Rooftop
Fit Gym
AWAY Spa
Away Spa is where the wellness experience really opens up. The spa lobby has a small, beautifully curated gift shop as you enter, and connected to it is the US3 Beauty Salon.
Through the AWAY Spa lobby, a hallway leads into the treatment area. There’s a lounge for relaxing before your service and private rooms for both solo treatments and couples. And before or after your treatment, the sauna is available — and when we say sauna, we mean a sauna that can comfortably hold about 20 people, with relaxation beds positioned just outside the main sauna area where you can sit in the residual heat. There’s also a large cold plunge pool for cooling down and meditating in between sessions. Every treatment at Away Spa is inspired by Brazil’s rich natural landscapes and cultural heritage — customized rituals using premium natural products with a genuinely holistic approach. It’s not generic hotel spa programming. It has a specific identity that makes sense for where it’s located.
US3 Beauty Salon
Fit Gym
Why the W São Paulo Also Changed How We Felt About São Paulo
One thing worth saying: we were in a different part of São Paulo before this stay — a more business-centric area where the city felt flat and a little transactional. We were honestly looking forward to leaving. A few miles away at the W São Paulo, we had a completely different experience of the city. Better energy, better location, better everything around the hotel.
By the time we checked out, leaving São Paulo felt a little sad rather than like a relief. That’s the best thing a hotel in an unfamiliar city can do — change your relationship to the place you’re visiting, not just give you somewhere nice to sleep while you’re passing through. The W São Paulo did exactly that.
And one more thing, since it comes up constantly in our reviews: this W beats any EDITION hotel we’ve stayed at. EDITION New York, EDITION Tampa — they’re genuinely nice and beautiful inside, but they’re almost all the exact same concept: one big open floor plan with plants as the room dividers, furniture that never quite lands, and bathrooms with a layout that doesn’t fully work. The new W design direction is doing something more considered and more interesting. The Supreme Suite alone — with its hidden doors, its Aman-adjacent palette, its ceiling TV — is a more thoughtful execution than anything we’ve experienced in the EDITION portfolio. If you’ve been an EDITION loyalist, do yourself a favor and try a fully renovated W.
Is the W São Paulo Worth It?
Book the W São Paulo
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View Photos of the W Sao Paulo
Our larger photo gallery can be found here for the Photo: W São Paulo Hotel
