­­Don’t let the pepto-pink exterior of Rosas y Xocolate fool you. This 17 room boutique hotel in one or Mexico’s most vibrant cities is about more than just a flash of color (though pink and chocolate brown dominate, as the name implies). The hotel’s creator, Carlos Kolozs Fisher, is a hard-driving New Yorker who was in the textile business based in the Southern Mexican city of Merida. When he sold his business he “meditated on what to do next.”

While waiting for an answer, he came across a mansion on Merida’s Paseo de Montejo which is lined with massive homes built in the French style by rich sisal growers during the reign of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico’s Europhile President/dictator from 1876 to 1911.

“I have a compassion for these old buildings,” Carlos told me. “I...