While standout properties continue to reshape American hospitality (see our complete U.S.A. list, with the top hotels in New York City, California, Texas and more), the year’s most compelling international debuts are quietly revolutionizing what luxury means in 2024. Forget design-by-numbers and obligatory spas. These properties in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and South America are doing something more interesting: creating experiences that simply couldn’t exist anywhere else.
From a Greek island that’s deliberately not Santorini to a Rajasthani palace that skips colonial nostalgia entirely, this year’s new hotel openings understand that true luxury isn’t about thread counts anymore—it’s about specificity. Tanzania safari lodge commissioning work from local artist collectives. A Roman palazzo letting a film director loose on its public spaces. A French convent conversion that’s as serious about its farmer’s market as its Roman baths.
These aren’t just hotels that happen to be new. They’re world-class properties that understand their context, their impact, and most importantly, their moment. In a world where luxury increasingly means the same thing everywhere, these debuts dare to be different. Here are the international openings that actually matter in 2024.
Rather than just renovate a landmark 1960s beach club, One&Only, which also opened a Dubai property at the start of the year, essentially resurrected an era when the Riviera was where mid-century Athens came to play. The 51-acre beachfront property anchors Glyfada’s southern edge, with 95 bungalows and 18 residences positioned to frame both sea and sunset views. The design team referenced specific architectural details from the club’s 1960s heyday—low-slung modernist lines, terrazzo floors, gleaming brass—all set against that glittering coastline.
Instead of the usual colonial pastiche, Singapore-based Raffles’ second Indian property takes its architectural cues from zenana, the queens’ quarters in pre-colonial Rajasthan. Smart move. The 50 rooms—many of which have private plunge pools—nail the details (hand-carved marble, traditional jaali screens) without feeling like a museum piece. The culinary offerings range from North Indian cuisine at Arkaa to Mediterranean-inspired bites at the rooftop bar and restaurant Sehara. Even the obligatory Raffles Sling gets an intelligent update via house-made saffron liqueur. Just far enough from the Old City’s chaos, it’s clear that, on the heels of the brand’s London opening in 2023, Raffles understands that authenticity isn’t just marketing anymore.
The Federici family’s transformation of this 16th-century palazzo shows how to balance cinematic flair with historic preservation. Twenty-six high-end rooms pair original features (18th-century frescoes, vaulted ceilings) with bold contemporary moves, notably from film director Luca Guadagnino, who designed the public spaces and signature Terrace Suite. Situated between Piazza di Spagna and Trevi, it maintains discretion—an unassuming facade opens to a palm-filled courtyard fit for languid aperitivos.
The Kimana Sanctuary is a critical 5,700-acre corridor connecting Amboseli National Park to the Chyulu Hills, where generations of elephants have traced their migration patterns. Prioritizing sustainability, Angama’s sophomore property was mapped by tracking those elephant movements, then building the 10-suite camp to integrate with their paths rather than obstruct them. The design team even consulted local Maasai communities on everything from building materials to guest experiences that create actual value on both sides.
When Valéry Grégo drops $100 million on a 1604 convent in France, you pay attention. The design team (Festen, Studio Mumbai) kept the bones but made them relevant for 2024. Now part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, the hotel features 88 rooms surrounding a citrus courtyard and hidden acre of gardens—300-plus plant species create an actual microclimate in Nice’s dense old town. There are Roman baths and a boulangerie that bakes with house-milled ancient grains, sure, but it’s the integration at this boutique hotel hideaway that matters: from street-level bistro to planned farmer’s market, this is a luxe hotel with a firmly anchored soul.
Folegandros sees 50,000 visitors annually. Santorini? 2.6 million. That tells you everything about Gundari’s position. The 27 suites skip the expected white-wash aesthetic for local limestone that practically vanishes into the cliff. More than half of the guest rooms are built into the rock, with infinity pools that make the Aegean feel like your personal sea. They got chef Lefteris Lazarou—Greece’s first Michelin star—to run the kitchen, while Line Athens (currently the country’s most interesting bar) handles the drinks. Cheers to that.
Singita’s latest in the 350,000-acre Grumeti Reserve proves safari design can evolve. Design firm HK Studio ditched the colonial references for something that makes sense: local materials and geometry that connect five suites to their surroundings. The 1,200-square-foot villa balances serious comfort (yes, there’s a cinema room) with specific craft choices—Swazi glass, pieces from disabled artist collectives in Arusha, Trevor Stuurman’s photography. Positioned for migration views, it’s clear Singita understands both the land and their audience.
Hotel brand Six Senses’ Caribbean debut shows real intent. Seventy-one rooms wrap around a natural saltwater lagoon, with engineering that minimizes impact—solar power, material reuse, the works. But it’s the well-being experiences that matter from the moment you check in: sleep labs with proper specialist consultation, Earth Lab workshops that mean something, genuine farming partnerships. Thirty-five minutes from the airport but mentally worlds away, it’s giving people a real reason to choose Grenada.
Spain-based Único Hotels’ take on this 1929 Art Deco landmark proves heritage properties can still surprise. The 70 rooms keep the drama—the building was constructed so shipping magnate Nicolás Mihanovich could literally watch his fleet—while bringing in smart contemporary touches through hand-woven art and Argentine craft. The old carriageway becomes a proper lobby lounge, while dining runs from tavern-style Cantina to Le Club Bacan’s intimate cocktail service. In Recoleta’s refined context, it hits exactly the right notes.
While other Seychelles properties cluster around Mahé, Platte Island sits 81 miles southeast. This distance makes sense once you arrive—here’s a coral atoll only accessible at high tide, where 50 villas, all with standalone tubs inside and private pools outside, occupy a half-square-mile speck in the Indian Ocean. But private island isolation isn’t the point. What matters is what this remoteness enables: hawksbill turtles nesting, coral reefs flourishing and genuine dark-sky stargazing. The resort’s infrastructure was built around these natural patterns, and while there’s that expected Waldorf luxury (four restaurants, a Roman-inspired spa with a sauna, steam room, hammam, outdoor pool and wellness screenings), it’s the property’s long-term conservation commitments that make it significant.
Monti has always been Rome’s outlier, an artisan’s quarter deliberately distant from the tourist hot spot circuit. Casa Monti understands this delicate ecosystem. Rather than producing just another five-star property, family-owned French brand Leitmotiv (the brains behind La Fantaisie in Paris) tapped designer Laura Gonzalez to create something that feels more like discovering a well-connected Roman friend’s townhouse. This applies as much to looks as it does to spirit. The ground floor operates as a genuine social space where locals actually linger, while Italian chef Umberto Tuccio’s kitchen skips the usual greatest-hits menu for hyperlocal interpretations of Roman classics. In a neighborhood suspicious of change, Casa Monti proves luxury hotels can enhance their context rather than disrupt it.
This Lake District arrival proves luxury hotels can prioritize function without sacrificing form. Beyond 47 rooms in the Georgian main house, six shepherd’s huts and a treehouse suite actually connect you to Ullswater’s shore. Programming emphasizes engagement: daily waterfront activities on chalkboards, free wetsuits for wild swimming, proper local biking and hiking intel. Three distinct dining spaces and a glass-walled swimming pool maintain standards, but muddy boots are explicitly welcome. It’s a new template for British country houses.
Here’s something different: a brand defined by remote island retreats makes its Japan debut right in Kyoto’s temple district. The 81-room property uses its urban positioning to evolve what Japanese luxury can mean in today’s age of preservation-meets-futurism. Yes, there’s a 90-year-old incense maker creating your welcome ritual, but there’s also a biohacking recovery lounge. The design team (Singapore’s Blink) kept things quietly sophisticated: 504 hand-made Raku tiles mapping Mount Kurama’s silhouette, or contemporary takes on 12th-century manga scrolls. But it’s the way the hotel operates—hyperlocal sourcing within six miles, resourced textile garments, on-site farming that supplies both kitchen and spa, bread made from breakfast juice pulp—that reveals its sixth sense may be attention to true sustainability.
Australia’s mountainous Scenic Rim region needs more properties like this. Opened December 2024 in Queensland’s emerging wine country, this 23-room boutique puts a smart spin on the Australian motor inn. Think ‘80s hacienda architecture updated with considered details: king beds positioned for mountain views, private balconies and a heated mineral pool that makes sense year-round. But what’s interesting is how they’re positioning the property beyond just rooms. That afternoon “Peacock O’clock” aperitif ritual taps into the region’s emerging drinks scene, while curated local outdoors and foodie itineraries spanning this—as you may guess—scenic part of the country tempt their audience far beyond a good night’s sleep.
Surrounded by a labyrinth of hutongs, Mandarin Oriental’s second Beijing outpost has attempted something radical after eight years in the making: a 73-room hotel that practically dissolves into its historic surroundings. Instead of corridors, guests navigate ancient alleyways between their courtyard suites, essentially becoming temporary residents of this 600-year-old neighborhood. The result transcends typical heritage projects: a reflection pond mirrors century-old maples in the entrance courtyard, while Italian restaurant Vicini occupies a former textile factory. But it’s Tiao bar that proves most revealing—its folklore-inspired mixology program drawing lines down the block for its DJ sets and cocktails that incorporate unexpected ingredients like osmanthus wine, dragon fruit grenadine and plum oleo saccharum.
