Issue #03-22: New Hotel News from HotelMap?

What’s happening in the world of super cool new hotels? Check out our latest five most noteworthy openings of 2022 as featured by the editors at HotelMap? & Roomcard?.

French designers make their mark on two stunning new hotels as Art Deco chic comes to New York and a modern Japanese ryokan opens in Kyoto. A medical resort where tech billionaires go opens on a picturesque island in Germany, Rock House sets up one of the most luxurious resorts in Turks and Caicos, and an all-white hotel brings sculptural minimalism to a tropical island in China.

The Shinmonzen | Opens April 2022

JAPAN: A new design hotel in “one of the most vibrant areas of Kyoto” (Vogue France ) has been called “a new classic” by Wallpaper* before its official opening. In the Gion district, home to “the ancient streets of the geishas” (Elle Decor Italia ), The Shinmonzen hotel “fuses old and new” (The Spaces ). Irish hotelier Paddy McKillen, who co-owns Maybourne hotels including Claridge’s and The Connaught, fulfils a “longtime dream to open a small hotel here” (Nikkei Asia ). He tasked Japanese architect Tadao Ando and French designer Remi Tessier with creating a modern Japanese ryokan, or inn. Filled with handmade hinoki wood bathtubs, paper shoji screens, “bamboo, silk and cypress” (Architectural Digest France ), nine “spacious and contemporary” (Wallpaper* ) suites overlook the picturesque Shirakawa River. Art by well-known names like Damien Hirst, menus by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a patisserie, private balconies and “a basement spa with a resident reiki master” (Wallpaper* ) add to the hotel’s appeal.

Our favourite feature: Marrying traditional Japanese lodgings with modern day luxury.

Rock House Turks & Caicos | Open Spring 2022

TURKS & CAICOS: One of Vogue’s “most anticipated new hotel openings of 2022”, Rock House is set to be one of Turks and Caicos’ “most luxurious resorts” (CNN ). The “Capri-like” (The New York Times ) “cliffside hideaway” (Forbes ) includes 46 stand-alone four-bedroom villas and poolside studio suites, a “buzzy, social” (Vogue ) beach club and “the largest infinity pool in Turks & Caicos” (Architectural Digest ). Designed by AD100 alum Shawn Henderson and Coast Architects, “plush Mediterranean-inspired cottages” (CNN ) are “comfortable, luxurious” (Forbes ) while offering access to oceanfront dining, a spa, fitness facilities and “daybeds on a 130-foot jetty” (The New York Times ).

Our favourite feature: The sea-jutting jetty with panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sumei Skyline Coast Hotel | Open 2022

CHINA: On a “tropical island” (Dezeen ) in China, Sumei Skyline Coast Hotel brings “two soothing pools” (Surface Magazine ) and a cool “minimalist all-white aesthetic” (Surface Magazine ) to the resort town of Sanya. Taking “the style of Mykonos to China's island coast” (Design Boom ), staying at this “ivory-white” (Surface Magazine ) hotel is like “staying in a modern cave” (World Architecture ), a place “where space becomes art” (Hotel Designs ). Designed by Shenzhen-based studio GS Design, the “striking fa?ade mimics the rise and fall of ocean waves” (Sleeper ) outside. Inside the seven-storey hotel, circular skylights, “curvilinear forms such as upside-down arches” (Surface Magazine ) and round-edged headboards create a soothing sculptural aesthetic where interiors are “all about maximising the views” (Hotel Designs ).

Our favourite features: Curvaceous lines and the striking minimalist aesthetic.

Lanserhof Sylt | Opens 1 May 2022

GERMANY: If you want to spa “where tech billionaires, Hollywood royalty and Victoria Beckham go” (Evening Standard ), head to the new 55-room Lanserhof Sylt. With “over €120 million invested” (Forbes ), the hotel is a collection of “giant thatched cottages” (Financial Times ) on “the upmarket North Sea island of Sylt” (Conde Nast Traveler ), dubbed the “Martha’s Vineyard of Germany” by Vogue . A medical spa where the bathrooms are “as glamorous and pleasurable to spend time in as any poolside bar” (The Telegraph ), a stay here involves “a comprehensive range of tests, analyses, scans” (Financial Times ). Designed by “world-renowned architect” (Forbes ) Christoph Ingenhoven, the hotel centres on a circular five-floor staircase. “Europe’s most expensive resort” (The Telegraph ) offers “indoor and outdoor saltwater pools” (Financial Times ) as well as whale-watching next to a 35km stretch of sand. Travel in style via the new Alpen-Sylt Nachtexpress sleeper train - “the most stylish way to travel through Europe” (Conde Nast Traveler ).

Our favourite feature: A scientific and celebrity-approved approach to health.

H?tel Barrière Fouquet’s New York | Opens Summer 2022

USA: “Blending Parisian panache with NYC cool” (Robb Report ), “venerable French hospitality company” (Forbes ) H?tel Barrière opens an eight-story hotel building in?Tribeca. With “96 Art Deco-inspired guest rooms” (New York YIMBY ) designed by?Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, Le Fouquet’s New York flaunts its “Calacatta marble and toile de Jouy fabrics” by the “acclaimed Swedish designer” (Forbes ). In the signature restaurant by “legendary French chef” (Vogue ) Pierre Gagnaire, high-gloss panelling is offset by “lipstick-red embellishments” (Vogue ). Set around a 1,500-square-foot interior courtyard, the hotel has a “sumptuous spa” (Forbes ), swimming pool and “state-of-the-art screening room” (New York Post ). Social spaces include the “uber-chic, violet-hued” bar and “rooftop terrace offering dazzling views of the Hudson River” (Forbes ).

Our favourite feature: French chic in NYC with a destination restaurant.

Previous New Hotel News editions:

Issue #02-22: New Hotel News : Luxury on Lake Como, Art Deco opulence in Oslo and a $1.4bn megaproject debuts in Dubai. Charleston gets a boutique hotel with apartment-style rooms and new thatched dwellings that offer views of one of the Great Lakes of Africa.

Issue #01-22: New Hotel News : In this edition take a look at the brand new Fifth Avenue Hotel, the hotel set to make Capri the summer hotspot of 2022, and London’s most hotly anticipated hotel opening of the year.

Week #52: New Hotel News : From over 2,500 new hotels that launched in 2021 Roomcard highlighted the 215 most likely to become icons of the future. See our final five of the best news hotels to open in 2021.

Week #51: New Hotel News : See the “complete reimagination” of a resort long considered one of the finest in the Caribbean, the first five-star hotel in Antwerp and a historic mansion in the Beverly Hills of Mexico City. A new Portland hotel welcomes guests via an art gallery in the lobby and a new luxury hotel opens in Courchevel.

Week #50: New Hotel News : Ski from a new luxury boutique hotel in Italy, discover next-level wellness in paradise and a sociable hotel a short hop from the Rocky Mountains. An unusual and ambitious hotel brings shepherd’s huts to rural Staffordshire and a vertical garden adds greenery to Philipe Starck’s latest hotel in Paris.

Week #49: New Hotel News : Floral murals flourish at a new hotel in Palm Springs, terrazzo tiles upgrade a grand Slovenian hotel and ME opens a new five-star in Barcelona. Statement bathtubs fill up a former palace in Portugal and Craig Burkinshaw - who founded Audley Travel - beckons us to the beach with “the coolest new holiday park”, says The Telegraph.

Week #48: New Hotel News : Bulgari unveils its latest jewel-like hotel, New York gets a hotel that’s both stylish and affordable plus Richard Branson’s celebrity hideaway opens up to a wider audience. The first W hotel in Italy is unveiled and the world’s best spa, Chiva Som, bring luxury health and wellness to Qatar.