The 100 best new hotels of the year

To find the best new hotels of the year, Travel + Leisure editors and reporters considered nearly 250 properties across 40 countries. Each opened (or unveiled a significant renovation) between February 2025 and February 2026. Here, the 100 stays that impressed us most—including storied beach resorts, country estates, and flashy city hotels.

[...] To create Vetera Matera, the only luxury albergo diffuso in the Relais & Châteaux portfolio, it took eight years of carefully restoring cave houses in the hilltop town of Matera. In southern Italy’s Basilicata region, this plush property features 23 rooms, including eight suites. When I checked in to Master Suite 5, a stylish subterranean cave house, I found contemporary Italian style, with timber, iron, and travertine crafted by local artisans. Suites on higher floors offer views of Matera, some with vaulted ceilings and terraces. At Artema restaurant, tasting menus for dinner follow the seasons. Expect delicate, delicious starters such as savory éclairs with red prawns and spring onion panna cotta. The Elysium Spa is an actual cave spa hewn from rock. In the calidarium, powerful hydromassage jets pummel away at my weary muscles. Guides picked by the hotel lead walking tours of the Sassi of Matera and the nearby town of Altamura; a highlight for me was visiting one of Italy’s oldest printing presses and a cheese tasting at Caseificio Dicecca, a favorite of Stanley Tucci’s. [...]