Week #16: 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?.

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; these are just three of our top five new hotels to note this week. In this week’s round-up you’ll also discover a European palace reborn as a luxury hotel and an intimate new African safari camp for four.

Can Ferrereta, Mallorca | Opens 17 May 2021

SPAIN: “Topping the anticipation charts” (Departures) for new hotels in 2021 is the opening of the “ultra-exclusive” (Forbes) Can Ferrereta. In the “quaint rural town” (The Luxury Editor) of Santanyi, on the “postcard-perfect” (Forbes) Spanish island of Mallorca, the hotel is set “within a charming 17th century building” (Evening Standard). Styling is all “cream tones, hessian rugs and olive-green urns” (The Telegraph) and features “linen-covered furniture, weathered timber, original stonework” (Wallpaper). Set in the “secluded countryside” (Forbes), close to white sandy beaches, this “place of sun-soaked serenity” (The Telegraph) encompasses 32 “stylish rooms” (House & Garden), a spa and central garden with a swimming pool surrounded by cypresses and olive trees. In The Telegraph under the headline: ‘30 dreamy honeymoon ideas’ Harriet Jones advises: “come to recharge, dream and repeat”.

Our favourite feature: The pool, surrounded by cypresses and olive trees.

Matild Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Budapest | Opens May 2021

HUNGARY: Occupying “a very grand address” (Financial Times) in Budapest, one of two belle époque-era palaces, the Matild is about to be “reborn as a five-star hotel” (Robb Report). Previously home to Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the 1902 hotel - “topped with wedding cake-like towers” (Robb Report) - will have a “glassed-in ‘sky bar’” (Bloomberg). Of the 130 rooms and suites, the top floor lofts “promise to be the coolest” (Financial Times). Take in a cabaret show at the meticulously restored Matild Café, “the first café in the city to open after the end of World War II” (AFAR), and satisfy your yearnings for “an old-fashioned European city hotel stay” (Financial Times).

Our favourite feature: Palatial high ceilings and cabaret shows in the grand café.

Little DumaTau, Linyanti Wildlife Reserve | Opens mid 2021

BOTSWANA: With its new “exclusive and intimate” (Country & Town House) camp of just four “spacious tented suites” (Financial Times), Wilderness Safaris “takes travelers to some of the most luxurious camps on the continent” (Travel + Leisure). Sister camp to the long-established but recently renovated DumaTau, this new addition to the safari scene puts “travelers up close” (Travel + Leisure) with “remarkable animals”. While each suite has “its own plunge pool” (Financial Times), a new wellness centre and spa sit between the two camps. Four guests can “set out in a helicopter” and “take part in a life-changing experience” (Forbes) to help conservationists track elephant corridors. This “entirely solar-powered” (Financial Times) camp creates sustainable ecotourism and there’s the option to “sleep-out” (Country & Town House) under the stars in the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve.

Our favourite feature: Unique once-in-a-lifetime safari experiences for just four people.

The Londoner, London | Opens Summer 2021

UK: A “mega opening for London” (Evening Standard), “sleek newcomer” (Architectural Digest) The Londoner sits bang on Leicester Square, on the site of a former cinema. Known as an ‘iceberg’ building, the remarkable architecture by Woods Bagot has created “one of the deepest hotels in the world” (Forbes). The ￡300 million 16-storey property is “half underground”, designer Glenn Pushelberg told Forbes. Alongside The Pan Pacific in the City, this is one of two new “landmark properties” (Forbes) to launch in London this year by world-renowned design duo Yabu Pushelberg. They’re responsible for The Londoner’s 350 contemporary rooms and suites featuring “floor-to-ceiling windows” (Boutique Handbook). Below ground is a ballroom for up to 864, meeting rooms, a swimming pool and gym while six dining options include a Mediterranean restaurant and - appropriately - two screening rooms. On the rooftop is a Japanese lounge bar with an open air firepit - “a true rarity in London” (Hospitality Net). Think of it as “the most luxe adult’s playground to ever hit London” - The Handbook.

Our favourite feature: The open air firepit and the hotel’s red carpet location.

The Hoxton, Rome | Opens 10 May 2021

ITALY: The Hoxton, “London’s hip brand of urban hotels” (Conde Nast Traveler) bounces back with the launch of its tenth hotel. Within “walking distance of Villa Borghese” (Forbes), The Hoxton, Rome has transformed a 1970s building into a 192-room hotel, furnishing it with vintage Italian pieces, reclaimed Murano glass chandeliers and “vibrant terrazzo floors” (Business Traveller). Bedrooms have “rough-textured wallpaper, exposed beams” (Conde Nast Traveler) and “rustic parquet floors” (Sleeper). As with all Hoxton hotels, the ground floor is “a destination for locals and travellers alike” (Hospitality Net) bringing “digital nomad cool” (Independent) to Rome. One to watch: if Ennismore founder Sharan Pasricha gets his way, there’ll be “another 50 Hoxton hotels in the next five years” (Evening Standard).

Our favourite feature: The cool styling and home-from-home office spaces.

Previous New Hotel News editions:

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 S?o 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.