January brings with it a new calendar of hotel openings that will likely change the hospitality landscape �" and ultimately where you want to stay in cities like Paris, Miami and New York. The most anticipated openings of 2015, however vague with their actual debut dates, include the new Faena Hotel in Miami designed by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, the reemergence of both the Crillon and Ritz Paris later in the year and new Baccarat Hotel that brings bedazzled luxury across from NY’s Museum of Modern Art in February.
Other hotels opening in Miami this year include East by Hong Kong-based Swire Hotels that’s part of the forthming Brickell Center and Four Seasons’ Richard Meier redux of legendary Surf Club, a 1930s members club that hosts the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Duchess of Windsor. Look for Nobu Hotels to continue its expansion from its inaugural Las Vegas address to a boutique address inside Miami’s Eden Roc and the Saudi capital of Riyadh this year. Four Seasons will christen both Morroco’s Casablanca that in dire need of a luxury address as well as Bahrain in March that include an outpost of Wolfgang Puck’s CUT steakhouse. In the UAE, Palazzo Versace will bring its gilded Medusa heads to Dubai Creek with a hotel-residence project not for the fashionably modest.
Notable city hotels emerging this year include Hotel Zoo in Berlin this February that brings a dose of cool to the West’s Ku-Damm neighborhood, La Reserve brings hotelier Michel Reybier to a belle époque Paris mansion in mid-January, NUO Hotel promises luxury and air purification in Beijing and The Lanesborough brings the Oetker Collection to London’s Hyde Park Corner. Far-away resorts opening this year include Lizard Island along Australia’s northern Great Barrier Reef that struts a brighter new look post-cyclone. Boschendal Estate in South Africa’s Cape Winelands makes a 300-year old vineyard the latest foodie it-address in Franschoek. Brown Beach in Tel Aviv brings a modish boutique hotel to the city’s lively waterfront while The Reverie in Saigon debuts an edgy urban address overlooking the city’s electric skyline.
