Riad Meriem, owned by New York-based interior designer and fine-art photographer Thomas Hays, seems set for success. "As a designer," explains Hays, "a small hotel like this allows you to be more theatrical, to let the imagination run." And it shows. Dotted around are washbasins fashioned from Indian bronze cooking vessels, Moroccan bridal veils from the middle Atlas mountains and Indonesian fabrics from Java and Sumatra. Images of his travels throughout Africa and Asia hang in most of the five rooms.