THE MOST EXCITING NEW HOTELS OPENING IN 2027
There’s always a long list of new hotels opening, and 2027 is no exception. So rather than running through every announcement, here’s our shortlist: the openings we’re genuinely watching, and the ones we’re most excited about.
WALDORF ASTORIA, LONDON
The one we’ve seen with our own eyes. Our founder was lucky enough to tour the Waldorf Astoria London, hard hat and all, while it’s still coming to life, and even half-built, you can feel what it’s going to be. A grand old London address, built by King Edward VII for his mother and later home to government offices, now being brought back with the kind of detail that doesn’t happen quickly. Taking reservations from March 2027, and already one to book early. When it opens, we’ll know exactly which rooms to recommend, because we’ve already walked them.
RAFFLES, LAKE COMO
Raffles is coming to Italy for the first time, and it’s chosen Lake Como as its base. For a brand with this much heritage to make the lake its Italian debut tells you something about where travel is heading. Here, the setting does so much of the work, the water, the gardens, the light, and we suspect this one will be hard to leave. For couples, and anyone who wants Como at its quietest and most beautiful.
CAMBRIDGE HOUSE, LONDON
A Georgian mansion in the heart of Mayfair, reimagined by Auberge Collection as its first London hotel, opening February 2027. What makes this one worth watching isn’t the address or the restoration, but the serious wellness club built into it, the kind of members’-club-meets-hotel that London does so well. For the traveller who wants to be right in the heart of London, but with somewhere genuinely restorative to come home to.
LA RÉSERVE, FLORENCE
Not every great opening is a grand hotel, and this is why we love this one. La Réserve is bringing just six apartments to Oltrarno, Florence’s quieter side of the river, where the locals actually live. For travellers who’d rather feel like they belong somewhere than pass through it, this is a different way to do Florence: space, privacy, and your own front door. Small, discreet, and exactly the kind of stay we find ourselves recommending more and more.
CHEVAL BLANC, SARDINIA
Cheval Blanc opens on the Costa Smeralda in 2027, bringing LVMH’s most exclusive hotel to an island that has always had the water and the beaches, but never, until now, a hotel quite at this level. We’ve been saying for a while that Sardinia was ready for this. For couples and milestone trips who want the Mediterranean at its most glamorous, this will be the new place to be seen.
ROSEWOOD, MILAN
Milan rarely gets talked about as a holiday in itself, and that’s exactly why we like it. It’s one of Europe’s most quietly sophisticated cities, and a Rosewood here gives you a real reason to stay rather than pass straight through to the lakes. Rosewood has a gift for making a hotel feel like it belongs to its city, and in Milan, this property is design-led, discreet and grown-up, making it a destination in itself.
ROSEWOOD BLUE PALACE, CRETE
Rosewood’s first address in Greece, and they’ve chosen beautifully. In 2027, the much-loved Blue Palace reopens as a Rosewood after a full reinvention, set on the coast between the little fishing village of Plaka and the port of Elounda. Expect what Rosewood does best, a real sense of place, suites with their own pools, and an Asaya spa looking out over the water. Greece is not short of beautiful hotels, but this is the one we’ll be watching, for couples and families who want the islands with a little more polish.
WHAT WE’RE REALLY WATCHING FOR
If there’s a thread through all of these, it’s this: the openings we’re most excited about aren’t the loudest ones. They’re the grand old buildings brought carefully back to life, the first-time arrivals in places that have quietly come of age, and the small, discreet stays for people who want somewhere that feels like their own.
We keep a close eye on all of them, because knowing a hotel before it opens, sometimes literally walking it in a hard hat, is how we know whether it’s right for you long before it’s bookable.
If 2027 is on your radar, and one of these has caught your eye, we’re here for you.
