There's a particular kind of hotel that doesn't just give you somewhere to sleep, it gives you a colour palette you'll spend the rest of the trip trying to describe to people at home. The kind where the decision to paint every wall a specific shade of green, or to tile an entire courtyard in hand-painted blue and white, wasn't a branding exercise but something closer to a personal conviction. From a clifftop fortress in Calpe that Ricardo Bofill designed in shades of deep red and purple, to a Rajasthani haveli where every room is a different jewel tone, to a quietly extraordinary guesthouse on a car-free island off the coast of Senegal - this guide is for those who book by atmosphere as much as location. Eleven hotels where colour isn't decoration. It's the whole point.