2025 Hot Hotel Preview, Part 1
The haul from the USA, Caribbean, Latin America, and Canada.
A little background for our many new subscribers (so nice to see you here), and a refresher for our longtime readers (we love you also). This is our annual best new hotels preview, one of our most popular (and bookmarked) features. Yeah, you’ve probably already seen many best new hotels lists, but they tend to focus on the high-end and chain-oriented. We cover some of those five stars too, but also a more balanced — and fun — mix of high and low. That means tiny roadside motel rehabs, sexy boutique players, and random passion projects. This year’s list is so big, we’re dividing it up into two newsletters, starting with the US, Caribbean, Latin America, and Canada. We update this list on Substack as we get news, and here’s what’s coming down the pike:
Inventive refurbishments of legendary hotels
Conceptual art projects you can sleep in
Cottagecore and castlecore fantasies
Over-the-top spa life
Big city boutique compounds
New life on old Route 66
For more crystal balling, don’t miss our 2025 travel trends report.
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The United States
The Asticou
Northeast Harbor, Maine
Temperatures are driving everyone farther and farther north in the summertime, which makes the return of the new Asticou even more timely — and timeless, considering the hotel was originally built in 1884. Accommodations at the 82-key classic include garden view suites and cottages overlooking the harbor. Picture a classic preppy Americana summer. Here you are. (June)
Belden House and Mews
Litchfield, Connecticut
Litchfield County is one of those IYKYK destinations — historic, fancy, cultural, discreet. If new hotels are any indication of a destination’s growing popularity, the cat is out of the bag, as interesting hoteliers plant their flags. Auberge Resorts led the way years ago when it acquired Mayflower Inn; Salt Hotels opened The Abner last fall. This spring brings Belden, a three-acre compound in the center of town from the team behind Fathom Favorite Troutbeck in the Hudson Valley. Once again, Champalimaud designed ten rooms and the restaurant located in the 1888 Victorian Belden house, as well as the 21 rooms in the 1959 Modernist Mews building, which is also home to the Bathouse spa and wellness center. (March)
The Six Bells Country Inn
Rosendale, New York
The quaint town of Rosendale, in New York’s Hudson Valley, is about to see an influx of stylish Brooklyn women living their best cottagecore lives. This is because an eleven-room inn, tavern, and riverside restaurant will be a showroom of sorts for The Six Bells, a cult-y Brooklyn boutique celebrating the revival of traditional crafts and country living (the idealized, European kind). Dreamed up by space-making doyen Audrey Gelman (of The Wing fame or notoriety, depending on your POV) and Jeremy Selman (of hotelier Sydell Group), we know it’s going to be cute. Greco Deco is doing the interiors (even the renderings are adorable), with lots of cozy country furniture, pine cladding, archival wallpaper, and colors that are “somewhere between sweet pastels and melancholia.” The Feathers tavern will offer early American comfy cookery and lots of ruffles. Nearly everything — from dinnerware to bed sheets — will (unsurprisingly) be shoppable. (Spring)
The Twenty Two New York
New York, New York
A new year will bring even more new private clubs to Manhattan. Hotelier and restaurateur Jeff Klein, last seen running the Monkey Bar with Graydon Carter, will return to NYC when he opens an outpost of San Vicente Bungalows in the former Jane Hotel in the West Village. London club king Robin Birley is supposedly bringing Oswald’s to the Upper East Side, but he likes to keep his plans secret. Another UK club import will allow non-members to check in: The Twenty Two New York, in a 1891 Union Square brownstone that was originally a YMCA founded by a Vanderbilt. Expect lots of historic details in the striking design, along with all the necessary of-the-moment conveniences. In-house restaurant Café Zaffri will be run by a team of women from Raf’s overseen by chef Mary Ate. With this and the recent unveiling of W New York Union Square’s multi-year renovation, the neighborhood is upping its game. (January)
Waldorf Astoria New York
New York, New York
The legendary hotel that helped define “legendary hotel” globally will reopen after Hilton splurged on a top-to-bottom makeover overseen by designer Pierre-Yves Rochon to restore the grand dame to its proper status as one of Manhattan’s most notable hotels. There will be 375 refined guest rooms (some the biggest in town) and just as many private residences, as well as a 30,000 square-foot spa and an ocean of event spaces. The F&B program will be notable (yes, Peacock Alley Lounge is coming back), but we’re most excited about Lex Yard, the two-story, all-day brasserie designed by AvroKO and helmed by Gramercy Tavern’s beloved chef, Michael Anthony. (Early 2025)
Faena NYC
New York, New York
West Chelsea will get an injection of over-the-top glamour and opulence when Faena debuts its New York outpost this spring in the X-shaped One High Line towers designed by starchitect Bjarke Ingels. Expect what you’ve seen at Faena Buenos Aires and Miami: celebrity-chef-led restaurants, a massive Tierra Santa Healing House spa, cultural events and exhibitions, nightlife at The Living Room, and site-specific art commissioned for the public spaces and 120 rooms and suites. (Spring)
Now Now NoHo
New York City, New York
Can you get on board with $125 a night for a prime Manhattan location? Think small, very small — as in sleeper cabins a la European train travel or Japanese capsule hotels — but don’t think too hard because it’s happening downtown on the Bowery. The micro hotel trend gets even smaller, as Dovetail + Co. debut their latest high concept: 180 tiny (under 60 square feet), cushy sleeper cabins that have shared but lockable bathrooms and a dedicated women+ floor. The amenities are nice: Brooklinen robes, Grown Alchemist bath products, custom Wright mattresses, storage spaces. Extras like iPads, Game Boys, Theraguns, and Solawave red-light therapy masks are available for rent. (April)
The Bellevue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The 1904 classic celebrated its 120th birthday (that’s six score for all you history buffs) by giving a major face lift to its 184 handsome rooms and suites and the grand public spaces that have borne witness to countless awkward prom dates, tipsy wedding toasts, and historic presidential receptions. The renovation was careful and respectful, and also charming: Swatches of the original wallpaper hang as art in some of the rooms. The Sporting Club will be the city’s biggest fitness club, its three floors packed with an indoor track, three golf simulators and a putting green, an indoor track, a 25-meter pool, and an official NBA-sized court for basketball and pickleball. (February)
The Trail Hotel
Bardstown, Kentucky
Bourbon, lovers, this one’s for you. A new, high-end boutique hotel in the town considered the Bourbon Capital of the World has 95 rooms and suites named in honor of the spirit (Single Barrel, Cooperage, Prohibition, Distillers Den). Yessiree, there are a handful of bars on site, including a speakeasy, and when you’re ready to explore, your bourbon butler (now there’s a business card) can arrange area tours and tastings. (April)