Monday Muse
Monday Muse
Interview Inside Natasha Shafi’s World of Artful Travel
Interview
Natasha Shafi
Photography
Hannah Dace
Interview
Natasha Shafi
Photography
Hannah Dace
Ducklings follow their parents across the water, swans are still asleep and geese fly overhead. We are in Kensington Gardens, where Natasha Shafi begins her Monday with an early walk, sometimes accompanied by a podcast and sometimes in silence. She nearly always stops to photograph the birds. It is a ritual rooted in close observation, and one that reflects the way she approaches travel: noticing the light, the architecture and the small details that allow a place to reveal its character.
Shafi is Chief Executive Officer of Mr & Mrs Smith, the boutique travel company known for seeking out hotels with character and a distinct sense of place. She joined the business in a junior role nearly two decades ago, when it was best known for its beautifully photographed hotel guides, and worked her way through the organisation before being appointed CEO in April 2025. Her journey has taken her from making the tea to making the plan, as she puts it, learning the company through the often unseen contributions that give a business its character. Along the way, she helped steer Mr & Mrs Smith through the pandemic, drove its B Corp certification and played a key role in its acquisition by Hyatt Hotels in 2023. Earlier this year Natasha spearheaded a new initiative called Smith Sessions in which leaders in industry came together cross sector to explore the future of travel and how it culturally resonates across various parts of our lives and businesses.
And it is of course looking and discovery where Shafi’s journey first began. A History of Art graduate from University College London, she experiences new destinations through colour, architecture and the artists who have interpreted them. A Tiepolo fresco encountered on the way to breakfast, an artist commission hidden within a hotel or a landscape that reveals a familiar country from a new angle can become the starting point for an entire journey. The Wick caught up with Shafi to discuss the hotels that stay with us long after check-out, how AI might make more room for genuine discovery and why Lee Miller would be her ideal companion on the road.
Shafi is Chief Executive Officer of Mr & Mrs Smith, the boutique travel company known for seeking out hotels with character and a distinct sense of place. She joined the business in a junior role nearly two decades ago, when it was best known for its beautifully photographed hotel guides, and worked her way through the organisation before being appointed CEO in April 2025. Her journey has taken her from making the tea to making the plan, as she puts it, learning the company through the often unseen contributions that give a business its character. Along the way, she helped steer Mr & Mrs Smith through the pandemic, drove its B Corp certification and played a key role in its acquisition by Hyatt Hotels in 2023. Earlier this year Natasha spearheaded a new initiative called Smith Sessions in which leaders in industry came together cross sector to explore the future of travel and how it culturally resonates across various parts of our lives and businesses.
And it is of course looking and discovery where Shafi’s journey first began. A History of Art graduate from University College London, she experiences new destinations through colour, architecture and the artists who have interpreted them. A Tiepolo fresco encountered on the way to breakfast, an artist commission hidden within a hotel or a landscape that reveals a familiar country from a new angle can become the starting point for an entire journey. The Wick caught up with Shafi to discuss the hotels that stay with us long after check-out, how AI might make more room for genuine discovery and why Lee Miller would be her ideal companion on the road.
THE WICK: What does a typical Monday morning look like for you?
Natasha Shafi:
I like Monday mornings. I start with a very early walk around Kensington Gardens, sometimes with a podcast, sometimes just with my own thoughts. I nearly always photograph the birds – I have far too many pictures of the ducklings and swans on my phone. I love the small moments: chicks following their parents, swans still asleep, geese flying overhead. Then it’s coffee before the working day begins.
Most of my week planning happens on a Sunday evening, so Monday is more about settling into the week than chasing it.
TW: You joined Mr & Mrs Smith in a junior role more than 15 years ago and are now leading the business into its next chapter. Looking back, what has been the most defining lesson of that journey?
NS:
Starting in a junior role means you learn a business through the details. You see the small mistakes that matter far more than anyone expects, the operational decisions that quietly build trust – or slowly erode it – and the people who make a business work long before they’re visible in any formal hierarchy.
It also teaches you that the distance between making the tea and making the plan isn’t as great as people imagine. Both require you to understand what people need, read the room and help create the conditions for great work.
More than any title, that’s the perspective that’s stayed with me. Businesses are built through thousands of individual contributions, many of them quiet and unseen. Strategy matters, of course, but trust, generosity and consistency are what give a business its character over time.
TW:
Mr & Mrs Smith has always championed hotels with a strong sense of place rather than simply luxury. What transforms a beautiful hotel into one that stays with you long after you’ve checked out and what is the biggest change you have seen?
NS:
The hotels that have stayed with me are rarely the grandest. They’re the places where you fall into the natural rhythm of somewhere, almost without noticing. Breakfast is made with what has been growing nearby, somebody points you towards a quiet beach you would never have found on your own, dinner stretches because nobody’s looking at the time.
You leave feeling as though you’ve briefly borrowed another way of living. That’s probably the biggest shift I’ve seen. People aren’t looking for a beautiful hotel that could be anywhere in the world. They’re looking for somewhere that could only exist there.
TW: Before travel, there is always curiosity. Having studied History of Art, how has that shaped the way you experience new destinations today?
NS:
Studying History of Art taught me to look differently: you notice the light, the proportions of a building, the colours people use and how a place has been interpreted over time.
It also makes you want to return. A painting can send you back to a city you thought you’d finished with because suddenly you want to see it through someone else’s eyes. Art is a reason to travel in itself. My favourite trips have always been layered with galleries, good food, good wine and beautiful landscapes. One always seems to lead naturally to the next.
“Art is a reason to travel in itself.”
Natasha Shafi
TW: Boutique hotels often become cultural destinations in their own right. Which property has most stood out in your own experience of art meeting travel?
NS:
Aman Venice is one of the most memorable places I’ve ever stayed. It feels completely otherworldly. You’re wandering through a sixteenth-century palazzo, looking up at Tiepolo frescoes on your way to breakfast, and after a while it all starts to feel strangely normal. That’s a very rare thing.
Le Sirenuse has been high on my list for years. I love the way they continually commission artists, so the collection is always changing. It means the hotel never feels static – there’s always something new to come across.
Broadwick Soho has a completely different energy. I like its sense of humour. I love that you can stumble across Francis Bacon lithographs or a William Turnbull sculpture that once belonged to David Bowie almost by accident.
I’m also really looking forward to Auberge’s Cambridge House opening in London. The idea of checking into a hotel where a Picasso self-portrait and a Magritte are simply part of everyday life feels very special.
TW: Every seasoned traveller has one destination that exceeded every expectation. Which place surprised you most, and why?
NS:
Always Greece. I find myself going back time and again, rather than looking for somewhere completely new. Every trip seems to take me to a different part of the country – forests instead of beaches, mountain villages instead of islands – and it shifts your perspective entirely.
I think that’s the History of Art student in me. I’m much happier seeing the same place through a different lens than seeking newness for the sake of it.
TW: If you had a chance to travel with any artist alive or dead who would it be and why?
NS:
Lee Miller. She had an extraordinary eye and an equally extraordinary life. I imagine she’d be the sort of travelling companion who made you look up, look closer and take the longer route.
I’m also a great admirer of Layla Andrews. She’s a friend of Smith, and I love her work: it has that ability to make you pause, which is something I think the best journeys do as well.
TW: Summer is synonymous with escape. What’s on your own itinerary this year, and what are you most looking forward to discovering along the way?
NS:
We’re spending part of the summer at Les Hautes Mer on Île d’Yeu this summer, a tiny island off France’s Atlantic coast. It’s completely car-free, with pretty harbour towns, a wild coastline and lovely places to swim, so life immediately slows down.
I’m looking forward to noticing it properly. I think that’s what holidays are for – having enough time to wander, eat well and settle into the rhythm of somewhere, rather than trying to see everything at once.
TW:
How is AI most revolutionising our travel experience and the way we view the world? What will be the biggest travel change by 2050?
NS:
AI has the potential to make travel feel far more intuitive, quietly taking care of the planning and practicalities so we can spend more time being present. That’s the role I find most interesting – not replacing the experience, but making more space for it.
For a brand like ours, that’s incredibly exciting because it allows us to focus even more on what we’ve always done best. For more than 20 years, we’ve visited places ourselves, noticed the details, met the people behind them and told those stories through the Mr & Mrs Smith lens. If AI can remove the friction, it leaves more room for taste, judgement and genuine first-hand discovery. That’s something technology can support, but never replace. I think we’ll move beyond travelling simply to escape. We’ll travel to learn something, to connect with people and places, and to see the world a little differently.
TW: Finally, who is your Monday Muse and why?
NS:
Tamsin Scott. We’ve been best friends for many years, so I’ve had a front-row seat to her creativity for a long time. She has an extraordinary talent for making things look and feel beautiful, without losing a sense of joy or playfulness. But what I admire most is her courage. Every project feels deeply personal and unmistakably her because she’s never afraid to trust her instincts. I always come away inspired to trust my own instincts a little more. She reminds me that vision matters, but courage is what brings it to life.
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