These 8 Hotels Are Opening in 2026. Choose Your Favourite and Pack Your Bags

From meticulously revived icons to ambitious new builds in far-flung corners of the world, 2026 is shaping up to be a banner year for upscale hotel openings. What ties them together isn’t just design, but intent: a stronger sense of place, a deeper investment in experience, and a willingness to let location — not just luxury — lead the story. Whether you’re chasing sun, snow, scenery or stillness, these nine new stays are worth planning a trip around.

Rimrock Resort, Banff, Alberta

Learn More

Perched high above the Banff townsite, the Rimrock has always had the view. Now, it’s getting a $100-million-plus reset to match. As the first North American property in Accor’s Emblems Collection, the hotel is being reimagined with a sharper focus on wellness and design, but without losing sight of what matters most: the surrounding peaks. This means outdoor thermal bathing, quieter, more considered interiors, and dining that leans into Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. The real draw, though, remains unchanged: stepping outside and realizing just how small you are in the best possible way.

Capella Kyoto, Japan

Learn More

Tucked into the Miyagawa-chō geisha district, Capella Kyoto unfolds slowly, its courtyards filled with filtered light and adorned with the quiet geometry of traditional design. From shoji screens to timber frames, architect Kengo Kuma’s touch is omnipresent yet never heavy-handed. Rooms feel contemplative rather than decorative, and the spa leans into ritual rather than trend. Even the dining follows the seasons with precision. It’s the kind of place that asks you to slow down and, if you let it, teaches you how.

Black Sand Hotel, Ölfus, Iceland

Learn More

There’s a particular kind of drama to Iceland’s south coast — windswept, monochrome, otherworldly — and Black Sand Hotel leans all the way in. Set on a volcanic beach, it’s all glass, shadow and restraint, with rooms that frame the Atlantic like a living painting. The real luxury here is proximity: to weather, to silence, to something elemental. Watch storms roll in from a geothermal pool, then settle into ÓMUR for a meal that reads like a love letter to Nordic seasonality. It’s stark, beautiful, and not trying to soften the edges.

Lake Como EDITION, Cadenabbia, Italy

Learn More

Lombardy’s most famous lake has always been about romance, but the 148-room EDITION brings a little more tempo to the story. Set within a revamped 19th-century palazzo, the hotel blends Italian grandeur with a lighter, more social energy. Spaces spill towards the water: terraces, a floating pool, a dock that makes arriving by boat feel almost mandatory. Three-Michelin-starred Chef Mauro Colagreco keeps things sharp on the culinary front, while Italy’s second Longevity Spa offers a thermal pool, herbal sauna, Turkish bath, and seven treatment rooms

Chesa Marchetta, Sils Maria, Switzerland

Learn More

Sils Maria has long drawn a certain crowd — writers, artists, those looking for alpine air without the fuss — and Chesa Marchetta fits right in. With just 13 rooms, it feels more like a private house than a hotel, albeit one with impeccable taste. Architect Luis Laplace has kept things quietly elegant: textured walls, thoughtful lighting, nothing overstated. The restaurant remains the soul of the place, seasonal and grounded, and designed to draw locals as much as guests. Come here to disappear for a few days, and perhaps stay a little longer than planned.

Amanvari, Costa Palmas, Mexico

Learn More

Aman Group’s long-awaited Baja California debut is arriving not with a bang or a whimper, but with a whisper. Amanvari stretches subtly along the East Cape, where desert meets the Sea of Cortez in soft gradients of sand and salt air. The architecture — low, open, almost deferential — lets the horizon take centre stage. Interiors are all sun-warmed stone, pale woods and the kind of tactile calm Aman does better than most. Days drift between ocean swims, unhurried spa rituals and dinners that move from crudo to cacio e pepe without missing a beat. It’s less an 18-suite resort than a reset button.

Public West Hollywood, California

Learn More

Ian Schrager understands a crowd, and Public West Hollywood is designed to attract one. Rooms are almost monk-like in their simplicity — clean, calm, functional — but step outside and the energy shifts. The rooftop is the main event: 360-degree views, a steady pulse of music and just enough exclusivity to keep things interesting. Downstairs, restaurants and bars blur into one another in that effortless Schrager way. It’s less about luxury in the traditional sense and more about atmosphere — the kind you don’t want to leave, even when you should.

Six Senses London, England

Learn More

Six Senses arrives in London with a clear proposition: wellness, but make it urban. Set inside the revived Whiteley building, the hotel balances heritage bones with a softer, more contemporary interior. The spa is predictably extensive, but the real twist is Six Senses Place, a private members’ club designed to pull locals into its orbit. It’s less retreat, more rhythm: a place to reset between meetings, dinners and everything else. In a city that rarely slows down, that might be exactly what works.

The post These 8 Hotels Are Opening in 2026. Choose Your Favourite and Pack Your Bags appeared first on Sharp Magazine.