Week #18: New Hotel News

What’s happening in the world of super cool new hotels? Check out our latest five most noteworthy openings of 2021 as featured by the editors at HotelMap™ & Roomcard™.

Explore the high-end hotel group giving all-inclusive holidays a makeover in Marbella, a minimalist hotel with a private beach in Oman and an eight-room villa in Croatia surrounded by a thousand olive trees. The best five new hotels this week also include a new wellness centre overlooking an Italian spa town and one of the biggest UK hotel openings in 2021 outside the capital.

Villa Nai 3.3, Dugi Otok Island | Opens 28 May 2021

CROATIA: Surrounded by “a thousand olive trees”, Villa Nai 3.3 is located on the picturesque Croatian island of Dugi Otok off the northern Dalmatian coast. The fact that this is “one of the most under-the-radar luxury hotel openings of the year”, says Forbes, “only adds to its appeal”. One of The Leading Hotels of the World, the eight-room villa is set on Goran Morović's organic family farm where guests can see the harvesting of the olives. They even have “an olive oil tasting room” (Poslovni Dnevnik) where you can sample the “award-winning” (Forbes) oil. The hotel's “isohypsis” (Total Croatia News) design - in line with the contours of the landscape - by academician Nikola Basic “gives it an unexpected and deeply unusual geometric shape” (Poslovni Dnevnik). All individually furnished rooms have access to the terrace, from which guests can “gaze at the stars at night” (Forbes). The hotel also boasts a “75-foot outdoor, saltwater infinity pool” (Forbes), indoor pool, tennis court, a spa with treatments based on olive products and two restaurants where food is cooked over an open fire.

Our favourite feature: Being surrounded by nature and a thousand olive trees.

Palazzo Fiuggi Wellness Medical Retreat, Fiuggi | Opens May 2021

ITALY: A majestic 1913 palace in the Italian countryside gets a €30 million makeover, adding a “cutting-edge” (Forbes) wellness centre and a menu by three-Michelin-star chef Heinz Beck. It’s “the first wellness facility into which Fiuggi’s famous springs will flow directly” writes Maria Shollenbarger in the Financial Times. The healing waters feed into two thalasso pools, part of the 6,000 square metre wellness centre which also houses 21 treatment rooms and an area which recreates “the experience of the ancient Roman Baths” (European Spa Magazine). The “high-profile opening” (Financial Times) is backed by the team that brought you Sardinia’s Forte Village Resort and is realised by spa architect Mario Dal Molin. Just under an hour from Rome, you can detox, unwind and “treat body, soul and mind” (Forbes).

Our favourite feature: A retreat that takes wellness seriously.

Ikos Andalusia, Marbella | Opens May 2021

SPAIN: Giving all-inclusive holidays a “high-end” (Luxury London) makeover, Greek hotel chain Ikos has lavished “180 million euros” (Business Traveller) on its first Spanish property in Andalusia. A “complete renovation” (Sleeper Magazine) of the Princess Hotel in Estepona, the 411-room resort, 20 minutes from Marbella, offers menus by Michelin-starred chefs, fitness classes, complimentary kids’ clubs, “seven insta-worthy pools” (The Luxury Editor) and a spa by Anne Semonin Paris. Guests can try local restaurants, use the hotel’s Mini car for the day, access golf passes and complimentary museum tickets - “all included as part of the stay” (Sleeper Magazine). Say what you like about all-inclusive holidays, this one will “save a nasty bill at the end of your luxury holiday” (Luxury London). “We never thought we’d say it,” reports Baby Friendly Boltholes, “but Ikos Andalusia has us lusting over an all-inclusive holiday”.

Our favourite feature: Spain’s all-inclusive holiday market gets an upgrade.

Alila Hinu Bay, Mirbat | Opened 11 April 2021

OMAN: In its “exclusive first look” at Alila’s “long-awaited” resort on the southwest coast of Oman, Conde Nast Traveller draws our attention to the “stylish guest rooms” and “thoughtful” design. The “minimalist” (Forbes) look is by Blink Design Group (Top Hotel News) who count Raffles and Six Senses among their clients. Each of the 112 rooms has “a private terrace offering either mountain, creek or sea views” (Conde Nast Traveller). If you’re in luck you’ll spot “dolphins in the Indian Ocean” (Forbes) from the “private beach” (Forbes). Guests at the 16 villas get their own pool, there’s a signature Alila Spa, “family-friendly activities” (Forbes) plus “‘farm-to-table’ dining experiences” (Business Traveller) at the hotel’s two restaurants. The “fabulous architecture” (Top Hotel News) leaves the rugged cliffs unspoiled at this “sophisticated beachfront resort” - Conde Nast Traveller.

Our favourite feature: 45 hectares of beachfront on Oman’s beautiful southwest coast.

The Grand Hotel, Birmingham | Opens 18 May 2021

UK: Billed as “one of the biggest UK hotel openings for 2021 outside the capital” by The Boutique Handbook, The Grand Hotel Birmingham revives a sleeping beauty, shuttered for close to two decades. Following a sizeable £45 million refurbishment, original features like “mosaic tiled floors and the grand staircase” (HospitalityNet) at the Grade II-listed building have been restored, presenting a mix of “French Renaissance, Victorian and Art Deco features” (Business Traveller). With “penthouse suites offering views across the city” (Business Traveller) among its 185 rooms, a sunken rooftop garden terrace as well as two new bars, New York-style brasserie and a “jaw-dropping” (Time Out) ballroom, “one of Birmingham’s best-loved buildings” is set to become “the city’s best hotel” says The Boutique Handbook.

Our favourite feature: The restoration of a historic grande dame.

Previous New Hotel News editions:

Week #17: New Hotel News | An off-the-grid Indonesian retreat adds a new private island, a labour of love revives an Italianate-style mansion in North Carolina and Six Senses sets its first foot in Brazil. This week’s top five also includes a wellness retreat on an unspoilt Greek island and a curvaceous brick-built boutique hotel on Mexico’s southern coast.

Week #16: New Hotel News | Sleek newcomer The Londoner sets up the deepest habitable hotel in the UK capital, trendy London brand The Hoxton launches a new hotel in Rome and a secluded countryside hotel settles into a picture-postcard Spanish island.

Week #15: New Hotel News | A new Colonial-era hotel in Puerto Rico’s capital, Japan’s first ‘castle hotel’ and the most hotly anticipated hotel to launch in Los Angeles this year are highlighted in this week’s top five new hotels to open in 2021 across the globe.

Week #14: New Hotel News | This week’s five alluring new hotels include the first of a new brand by the founder of the Aman group, one of the world’s highest infinity pools atop a towering new hotel in Dubai and a cool coastal retreat in Santa Barbara.

Week #13: New Hotel News | Japan’s latest hotel taps into the health benefits of volcanic hot springs, an iconic Italian hotel is given a Parisian makeover and Ibiza’s little sister gets a grown up hotel by Pacha. New Yorkers can escape to a riverside retreat, and a former boot factory in Bristol becomes a new arty hotel. These are the top five hottest new hotels of 2021 we’ve highlighted this week.

Week #12: New Hotel News | Raise a glass to the new Four Seasons set within a Napa Valley vineyard, enjoy laidback and soulful luxury in Ibiza, and explore a hotel set within the cactus-studded desert landscapes of Mexico. Our five top hotels this week also invite you to discover the vertical garden at the Rosewood in São Paulo and a meticulously restored medieval castle in Umbria.

Week #11: New Hotel News | Basketball courts become luxury suites in L.A, an oasis of peace arrives on a Greek party island and a new desert camp is set up in Saudi Arabia. Our five favourite new hotels this week also include a glamorous, grand palazzo in Palermo from Rocco Forte and the first hotel outside America by the buzzy NoMad brand.

Week #10: New Hotel News | Across the globe, from the Maldives to Montenegro, the Israeli desert to the African bush, we explore five stunning new hotels launching in 2021. Book your own private island, sleep under the stars in a baobab-shaped treehouse, dive into the One&Only’s luxury spa, stay overnight in the Negev Desert and see the revamp of the Spanish hotel Cesar Ritz set up over 100 years ago.

Week #9: New Hotel News | This week we look at five of the best new hotels (including one owned by Pharrell Williams) opening across the globe this year. There may be a global pandemic but that hasn’t stopped these new hotels from rising up. From a long list of over 120 new hotels set to open in 2021, we’ve chosen five hip new places to stay in New York, Paris, Nago and Miami – and reveal what the experts say about them.