Best Hotels With Music Programming: On-Property Concerts, Live Events

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Dozens of South by Southwest attendees got an up close and personal post-festival experience last month as Major Lazer’s Walshy Fire took over the Austin Proper Hotel for an exclusive, one-night-only DJ set.

Playing behind a makeshift DJ booth in the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, Kappo Kappo, Walshy Fire’s invite-only party drew curious guests and longtime fans alike, as he spun a dedicated set that went well into the early morning hours. For those staying at the hotel, the event was a chance to experience the property beyond the four walls of their suite. For music fans, it was an opportunity to see one of the industry’s most dynamic artists in an intimate and unexpected setting.

The SXSW activation was the latest event from Proper Presents, the hospitality and events arm of the Proper Hotel chain, which has hotels and residences across the country. As their team explains, Proper Presents was created out of a desire to position their properties as city hotspots while transforming their spaces into “dynamic platforms for creativity, community, and cultural exchange.”

According to Casey Dolkas, VP of Activations and Experiences at Proper Hospitality, “Proper has always cared deeply about design and experience, but we realized our cultural programming needed its own identity. We were already hosting great music, wellness events, dinners and conversations. Proper Presents gave it focus and intention.”

One of the goals was to lean in more to music programming, giving hotel guests access to artists in a casual setting, while creating pop-up-style concerts for the properties’ surrounding communities. Recent events have included rooftop DJ sets, singer-songwriter nights and music-driven parties during big events like Frieze and Art Basel, in addition to SXSW. The events have brought out everyone from Leon Thomas and Maren Morris, to Phantogram, Cut Copy, Arlo Parks and Questlove. Other artists, like Anderson .Paak, have played multiple Proper properties, “almost like a Proper tour,” offers Dolkas, who adds that “music is foundational to the Proper experience.”

Even without a big-name artist, music resonates throughout the Proper Hotel spaces daily. In Austin, the Proper transformed an event space into a dedicated music venue dubbed the “Quill Room.” And in Santa Monica, the hospitality group introduced a custom Kelly Wearstler-designed Edelweiss piano in their lobby restaurant, Palma, to create a “built-in stage for spontaneous moments.”

“We’ve never seen music as background,” says Brian De Lowe, President and Co-Founder at Proper Hospitality. “It changes how a room feels. It shapes memory. You can walk into the same space at 8 a.m. and at midnight and have two completely different emotional experiences because of sound. It is,” De Lowe says, “part of the architecture of the experience.”

Up next for Proper Hospitality: taking over a Lake Tahoe property once owned by Frank Sinatra, and restoring its original theater, while adding a recording studio and a dedicated Hi-Fi listening lounge. “It’s not about turning a hotel into a club,” says De Lowe. “It’s about building spaces where music feels intentional and alive.”

Of course, many other hotel brands are also offering exclusive music-related programming these days. The W Hotel launched its “W PRESENTS” series in 2023, designed as a “traveling series across W Hotels destinations,” while complimenting the local music activations (like the popular vinyl nights) at the hotels’ Living Room Bars. Past W PRESENTS events have brought out top-name DJs and emerging acts to locations as close as W Hollywood (where I saw Mau P play an intimate rooftop set) to Koh Samui in Thailand, where W’s Global Music Director LP Giobbi was joined by Bonobo, Sofia Kourtesis and others for a weekend-long party dubbed the “W PRESENTS Retreat.”

Giobbi is also using the W PRESENTS platform to help “amplify underrepresented voices in music,” with an ongoing partnership with FEMME HOUSE, the DJ and producer’s nonprofit that funds opportunities for female, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creatives in the industry. The programming includes DJing and music production lessons, along with the opportunity for FEMME HOUSE participants to take the stage as opening acts for the W PRESENTS events. The goal: to create “inclusive spaces where sound, self-expression and storytelling converge.”

Perhaps where music programming at hotels shines the most is at the local level, with numerous properties across the country offering tie-ins to the genres and artists best represented by their cities.

The Conrad Nashville is one of the most popular hotels in Music City, with a monthly writers round that welcomes local musicians for a night of acoustic sets and storytelling. Also known as a “guitar pull,” the traditional country music affair gathers about a dozen songwriters each month at the hotel’s Thistle & Rye lounge to perform their original songs, while sharing the inspirations behind them.

Georgia’s Cloudland at McLemore Resort features a monthly Songwriter’s Series in the summer, with artists specializing in Americana, folk and roots music, who play at the cabin-style property perched atop Lookout Mountain. The resort calls it a “blend of breathtaking natural beauty and intimate live music,” with every concert serving as “a true soundtrack to the mountain’s timeless charm.”

Just outside Chattanooga, Bolt Farm Treehouse is a mountaintop glamping retreat founded by former NEEDTOBREATHE bassist Seth Bolt, who curates a space that offers “music-driven programming rooted in connection” with nature. The alternative rocker leads a weekly experience called “Campfire Songs & Stories,” which invites guests to enjoy stripped-down musical performances in the great outdoors, while sharing stories and sipping spirits.

Hotel Drover, in the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District in Fort Worth, TX, has launched a weekly live music series in The Backyard, the property’s creekside garden oasis. Appropriately dubbed “The Backyard Unplugged,” the series draws local performers and visiting artists alike on Friday and Saturday evenings, with nods to the region’s deep history of country music, Tejano, blues, rock and jazz. Hotel Drover says the series has become a “true social draw for Fort Worth and the wider region,” with the property noting that the crowd is often made up of more than 50% locals on Backyard Unplugged nights. 

Over in California, the Fairmont Breakers Long Beach is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, with musical events that pay tribute to its history of “music, dancing and Jazz Age glamour.” Chief among its offerings is Alter Ego, a hidden speakeasy-style lounge tucked behind the main lobby, where musicians honor the jazz music roots of the restored 1920s Art Deco building. Weekly events include “Latin Jazz Fridays,” and a CSULB Alumni Series, where jazz trios and musicians from nearby Long Beach State University take over the space for a friends and family-style jam session.

Orchestras, meantime, once played in the hotel’s rooftop Sky Room, and while the Hollywood-era hotspot is still bustling today, the music has moved over to HALO, the hotel’s rooftop bar that offers a rotating lineup of DJs on the weekend to soundtrack your night — and those sunset views.

And when you’re ready to call it an evening, you can take an Uber home of course, or you can check into one of the Fairmont Breakers’ 185 guest rooms and 22 suites, each decked out in luxurious finishes and calming coastal colorways. Elizabeth Taylor spent her (first) wedding night at the Breakers, and the hotel was a favorite to the likes of Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth and Cary Grant too.

Even back then, the Old Hollywood stars knew that a hotel is more than just a place to rest your head – it’s also a social club, cultural hub and entertainment arena all at once. And whether you’re chasing a nostalgic night out in Long Beach or vibing to a vinyl set in Austin, hotels today are also offering a place where you can discover — and rediscover — music in a whole new way.

As Proper Hospitality’s Dolkas explains, “Hotels today have the opportunity to be living cultural spaces, not just places to sleep, but places where people gather, discover, and connect. Guests leave not just remembering where they stayed,” he says, “but what they experienced.”