Issue #06-22: 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?.

The Mitre Hampton Court gets a new sibling with the opening of The Retreat at Elcot Park, The Ned heads stateside, and Banyan Tree premieres its new Escape brand in Bali. The Costa del Sol gets a buzzy new hotspot and a secret Greek island gains an intimate boutique hotel.

The Retreat at Elcot Park | Opened Spring 2022

UK: “The hottest new hotel opening in the UK this spring” (Vogue) The Retreat at Elcot Park is an “off-beat country escape” (The Times) from The Signet Collection - the boutique hotel brand behind “staycation success” (Conde Nast Traveller) The Mitre Hampton Court. “Class and luxury come aplenty” (Tatler) at the “stylish, spoiling place to stay” (Tatler), which sits within a Grade II listed building “surrounded by the lush, rolling hills of the North Wessex Downs” (The Guardian). The “meticulously designed suites” (Vogue) are dressed with “lashings of covetable vintage wallpapers and fabric” (Conde Nast Traveller) as well as “Downton Abbey-worthy four-posters” (Tatler). Guests can also make use of “a huge spa, tennis courts and outdoor Whispering Angel bar” (The Telegraph) plus two restaurants, an outdoor swimming pool and a courtyard that “will be the setting for a monthly farmers’ market” (The Telegraph). “And all 40 minutes from London. Heaven.” (Conde Nast Traveller).

Our favourite feature: Meticulous design in the heart of the British countryside.

La Zambra | Opening July 2022

SPAIN: This summer, the former Byblos hotel, “which welcomed Princess Diana and The Rolling Stones in its heyday” (Vogue), will reopen as La Zambra. “Set to be the new hot spot on the Costa del Sol” (Forbes) the hotel will have “a selection of bars and restaurants” (The Telegraph), “two tennis courts, two paddle courts, a gym, a yoga and Pilates studio, a ten-room spa and a nightclub” (The Times) as well as “sweeping views out to the Sierra de Mijas mountain range” (Independent). The design “will champion earthy Andalusian style” (The Telegraph) with “a top-to-toe zen look” (Independent). One for golf lovers, it will be “located near two 18-hole golf courses” (Forbes) and is just “half an hour from Marbella’s beaches” (Independent).

Our favourite features: The zen interiors and sweeping panoramic views.

The Ned NoMad | Opened June 2022

USA: “The Ned heads stateside” (Sleeper) this summer with the much-anticipated opening of The Ned NoMad. Opening in the Big Apple, the hotel will be “the first overseas edition” (The Times) of London’s famed members’ club-cum-hotel, bringing “the same buzzy vibe and 1920s glam aesthetic” (The Times) to the Garment District in the centre of Midtown Manhattan. Just like the original, there’s “a mix of members-only and public spaces” (Time Out) with several restaurants - including “Manhattan’s first Cecconi’s” (Surface Mag) and “a rooftop terrace with views of the Empire State Building” (The Times). A rooftop pool and spa are set to follow in 2024. It “will be a vibe” (Evening Standard) and “represent a real coming-of-age for a neighborhood that in 2012 was still up-and-coming” (Bloomberg).

Our favourite feature: The buzz of several drinking and dining destinations under one roof.

Hotel Aristide | Opened April 2022

GREECE: “The less-trod island of Syros” (Financial Times) gained a new resident this spring with the opening of Hotel Aristide. The former “shipping and commercial heart of Greece” (The Times) Syros was once “a place wealthier than Athens itself” (The Times) and it shows in the architecture with “perfectly proportioned neoclassical mansions” (The Times) - one of which houses Hotel Aristide. The “sanctuary of just nine rooms and suites” (House and Garden) provides a “contrast to Greece’s typically white-washed Cycladic offerings” (The Spaces) with “a refreshing use of color” (Travel and Leisure), “teal velvet and art deco furniture” (House and Garden) and architectural accents that provide “an immediate feel of ancient glamour” (House and Garden). The hotel “hosts an art gallery, an artists’ residence and workshop, and two bars” (The Spaces) and has a “comprehensive environmental regeneration programme” (Suitcase) with organic produce, zero single-use plastic and a tree-planting carbon offsetting scheme.

Our favourite feature: Colourful interiors that stand out among Greece’s white-washed buildings.

Buahan, Banyan Tree Escape | Opened June 2022

INDONESIA: Delivering “the epitome of Bali bliss” (Conde Nast Traveler) Buahan is the inaugural outpost of Banyan Tree’s brand-new Escape brand - “a wilder, more experimental sibling to the group's other wellness-centric resorts” (Vogue). Sitting in a “northern Ubud enclave” (Vogue) that’s “off-the-beaten-track” (Lifestyle Asia) the property is “surrounded by rice paddies and jungle” (Elite Traveler) with “a non-stop chorus of cicadas” (Vogue) as its soundtrack. The ‘No Walls, No Doors’ brings guests “closer to nature than any other Balinese resort” (Conde Nast Traveler) with open-air villas from which you can “reach out and brush the palm leaves” (Conde Nast Traveler). “All [suites] come with hammered copper bathtubs and personal plunge pools with views of the valley” (Vogue). There’s also an open kitchen and living room where guests can dine on a mainly plant-based menu while the bar “makes use of locally grown natural ingredients” (Lifestyle Asia) to create a range of botanical-infused concoctions.

Our favourite feature: Pure jungle escapism

Previous New Hotel News editions:

Issue #05-22: New Hotel News | The first Gleneagles urban outpost opens, a buzzy new hotel lands on Ibiza, and a grown-up reincarnation of Ace Hotel arrives in Shoreditch.

Issue #04-22: New Hotel News | An abandoned Italian castle has new life breathed into its historic walls and a wilderness escape opens 90 miles north of New York City.

Issue #03-22: New Hotel News: 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.

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.