One of the positive facets of the COVID pandemic for the industry is that it has given many hotels the opportunity to pause, reconsider things and embrace renovation projects that would otherwise have been highly unlikely when they were open and operating. as usual. As a result, the past two years have seen a number of “better than ever” reopenings, and in 2023, I was lucky enough to stopover at several Forbes top-tier four and five-star hotels and resorts that had completed . or were in the process of completing their business. Massive updates or expansions. I’m not talking about new carpets or unupdated hot tubs, I’m talking about 8 and 9 figure reimaginings.
Few renovation projects of this magnitude are implemented in the hospitality industry, and if you Google “top hotel renovations,” you’ll find next to nothing and instead get a behind-the-scenes list of the most productive new hotels. In fact, there’s something exciting about extraordinary new hotels. Properties, however, for me, there is something even more wonderful about places that you know are already wonderful and that take it to an even greater level. Over the past year and a half, I have visited many notable hotels and resorts, old and new. , but these four excel at finding the old, the new, and indeed more wonderful than ever. Not all of them were directly similar to the pandemic pause, but they have all taken a particularly step forward, from a bar that was already very high.
It was my first big vacation in 2023 and rightly so, it was one of the biggest innovations in the global hospitality industry. When a hotel does a million-dollar renovation, it sends out press releases, and when it does a $10 million renovation, it’s covered through magazines. To put things in perspective, the far-sighted owners of the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua took advantage of the pandemic-induced shutdown to release a $100 million allocation, in what was already a Forbes 4-star hotel with a 4-star spa.
Inspired by the adjustments in the industry brought on by COVID, the hotel has invested in the future, targeting the world of tomorrow, which is today. People were looking for more outdoor living, more privacy, and more luxury, so they added an entirely new room category, the Fire Lanai Collection. These have taken the ground-floor rooms and suites, removed the balconies (every room in the hotel has a personal patio or balcony), and added a spacious and personal garden-style outdoor living area. spaces with a shaded trellis, hammock, seating, and a push-button fuel fireplace. The new outdoor spaces have more than doubled the total square footage, and you can step out with a drink in front of the fireplace and watch the sun set or the whales frolic offshore. They were so popular that the hotel decided to build a second phase just a few months after it reopened.
What else? The huge pool complex has been completely rebuilt, with 3 giant freeform pools (adding an adults-only one), now all off-access with new luxury cabanas and several new or expanded food and drink establishments, with a focus on outdoor activities. service and meals. The 54-acre assets (the Ritz alone, not counting Kapalua’s vast golf courses and progression, adding arguably Hawaii’s most productive, the famed Plantation) now offer cornhole, bocce ctoce, pickleball, and tennis, several outdoor luaus. areas, and a major addition was a giant indoor outdoor venue featuring live music. And about once a month, the station features a prominent poster. The hotel is one of only six Ritz-Carlton hotels in the world to host Jean-Michel Cousteau’s presentations. Environmental Ambassadors Program, with eco-tours and programming for all ages.
The oversized fitness center offers stunning views of the ocean and everything is brand new, from the fleet of popular Peloton motorcycles to the Tonal weight system. The Ritz-Carlton Spa Maui features therapy rooms framed by private lawn showers, volcanic stone grottoes, steam remedies, a sauna, and a Jacuzzi. Each room has been renovated and gained new oversized TVs, Nespresso machines, Italian bath products, and a five-light setup with separate soaking tubs, showers, and dual vanities. They have automated Japanese toilets and all have tons of electric power and USB plugs, while the entire resort has been updated with super-fast internet access suitable for the suddenly popular remote painting “vacation. “
The last major improvement was the addition of a new Club Lounge, something that is not unusual in Asia but is still very rare among luxury hotels in this country. Ritz-Carlton, which has wonderful salons in the Pacific region, has produced the most productive domestic paintings of all the major brands, but this is a new flagship,
offering everything from hearty made-to-order breakfasts to freshly baked cookies, high-quality wines (Decoy, Justin, authentic French champagnes), and spirits like hard-to-find Yamazaki Japanese whiskey, all for free. Other drink features come with freshly squeezed juices and signature tropical cocktails. The club features a giant waiter-service courtyard overlooking the 15th hole of the Bay Golf Course, and features a small satellite anteroom with 24-hour coffee, comfortable drinks, and late- or early-night snacks. morning needs.
Nemacolin may be the best luxury property in the country that many people have never heard of, a grand resort spanning well over 2,000-acres with multiple lodging options and extremely extensive sporting facilities. The dream project of Joseph Hardy III, the billionaire founder of the 84 Lumber chain, Nemacolin is now firmly run by his family, who put pride of ownership and excellence ahead of everything else.
Just to give you an idea, before you decided to upgrade, Nemacolin had a 5-star Forbes hotel, Falling Rock, a 5-star restaurant, Lautrec, a 4-star hotel, Chateau, a 4-star restaurant, Aqueous, and a 4-star spa. Only a handful of top-tier resorts, such as Wynn Las Vegas and Georgia’s Sea Island, can claim those kinds of multiple winners. Still, it was time to modernize the family circle, to the tune of more than $200 million — more than the maximum that new luxury resorts charge for building from scratch.
The Peak, a year-round pool and entertainment complex, was built from scratch during the pandemic as … [+] part of a $200 million-plus resort improvement.
The first big replacement visitors will notice was The Peak, a new logo-added entertainment venue during the pandemic that combines a year-round mini-water park-style outdoor pool complex with indoor entertainment that adds bowling alleys and axe throwing, plus food and beverages, all. overlooking one of the resort’s chairlifts, open for fun in summer and winter.
One great substitution that visitors probably wouldn’t notice is Wisteria, an entire residential domain tucked away within the sprawling employee-only property, complete with its own accommodations, grocery store, recreation center, and restaurant. While visitors may not be able to use it, Nemacolin is known for retaining its long-standing staff and perfect visitor service, and investments like those remain solid, resulting in a better visitor experience.
More recent was a total redo of the Grand Lodge, Nemacolin’s third hotel. It was completely gutted and whittled down from 97 rooms to 56, all of them suites—and all with butler service, already a standard at the 42-room 5-Star Falling Rock, so named because its architecture is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s nearby architectural masterpiece Falling Water.
The Grand Lodge has reopened as an all-suite property, with new hotels like this one. . . . [ ]
The new suites boast huge balconies, wet bars and unusually large and ornate bathrooms with gigantic walk-in showers, Japanese toilets, endless imported marble, and pretty much everything they could think to buy. The resort’s signature fine dining restaurant, Lautrec, closed for months for a total refresh, the Lodge got a large new farm to table restaurant, Fawn & Fable, which showcases the resort’s Wine Spectator award winning cellar, the largest commercial collection in Pennsylvania, as well as a new grand bar, new grand lobby, and pretty much new everything. The owners are not shy about their ambitions to add another 5-Star rating to the resort with the rebuilt Grand Lodge, which now houses a big chunk of their $50 million art collection that is on display around the resort.
Also new is a golf academy, a self-contained facility equipped with the most productive training generation money can buy, adding racks including Trackman, Swing Catalyst and Dual Force Plates, as well as a full range of outdoor riding provided with Trackman and a dedicated course. . playground.
The Grand Lédoge features new rooms, a new lobby, a new dining room and a new flagship bar.
This is on top of vast existing recreational offerings that include two Pete Dye designed 18-hole golf courses that have hosted the PGA Tour, a world-class clay shooting, sporting clays and fly-fishing facility, downhill ski resort, ropes course, Ninja gym, off-roading, horseback riding, dog sledding, art classes, and a separate Holistic Healing Center in addition to the 4-Star mega-spa and fitness center. Ther’s even a rescue animal sanctuary onsite with outdoor enclosures spread out so you can walk around it, featuring everything from lions to tigers to rare buffalo. There are not many resorts where early morning joggers might hear lion howls.
The next step is a general renovation of the 4-star Forbes Castle, which will reopen this summer and pass through the iconic Ritz Paris.
Usually, a new luxury hotel, a golf academy, an entertainment center, a working village, and several new bars and restaurants would abound anywhere. But as soon as the Grand Lodge reopened last year, they closed the nearby 4-star Forbes Castle, built as a tribute to the Ritz Hotel in Paris, and began an equally thorough renovation that will redecorate each and every room. The better-than-before Castle will debut in the summer of 2024, and you can be pretty sure that more additions and innovations will follow. .
There are Forbes 5-Stars resorts and then there is Twin Farms, which in 2020 also won Forbes Travel Guide’s “Hotel of the Year” for having the highest score of any of the 107 5-Stars in the world—98.24% out of a possible 100, according to Boston Magazine. In 2022 Conde Nast Traveler put it in the Top 50 Hotels worldwide, and the once hyper-influential and ultra-critical Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report named it the Number One hotel in the country. It goes on and on for this longtime Forbes 5-Star winner and Relais & Chateau standout: Town + Country “World’s Best Adults-Only Resorts”; Travel + Leisure “The Most Romantic Couples Resorts in the World”; Brides “Best Honeymoon Resorts in the US and Canada”; and at Food + Wine’s 2023 Global Tastemaker Awards, Number One in the US for both Best Hotel For Food and Best Hotel Bar.
With only (as of last month) 10 luxury cottages filled with art and independent themes, 4 farmhouse suites, a 2-bedroom lodge, and 4 luxurious rooms in the main building, Twin Farms is one of the smallest resorts in the world capable of achieving such success. . awards and distinctions. This 16-and-over asset occupies a bucolic 300-acre farm once owned by Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and his prominent wife, journalist Dorothy Thomson. It’s known as an “adult summer camp. “with a relaxed atmosphere and a fun aesthetic, imaginable through unique recreational offerings, especially for such a small number of guests.
Twin Farms has 28 hotels and its own personal downhill and cross-country skiing areas.
For example, Twin Farms has downhill ski slopes, but instead of lifts, they have chauffeured snowmobiles to whisk guests to the top between runs, and full alpine and Nordic equipment rentals, expect these are included, not rented. Because alpine touring, aka skinning or uphill skiing, has recently become popular, the resort just purchased a full fleet of high-end Italian gear specifically for this sport, even though only a tiny handful of guests will ever use it. There’s fly fishing, canoeing, biking, a freestanding furo for Japanese hot bathing, spa, gym, tennis, pickle ball and much more. They have their own extensive cross-country ski, hiking and mountain biking trails system, guides on demand, and will meet guests pursuing outdoor recreation anywhere on the property with gourmet picnics and champagne, all of it included in room rates. In fact, picnics are so big here that they have a special map of places to have them, guests often enjoy them in their accommodations, and they are the only luxury hotel I know of that has a “Picnic” tab on their main webiste menu.
The 5-star Twin Farms has won almost every single award a hotel can win, but it is especially noted for its amazing food.
It is probably the most sumptuous all-inclusive hotel in the country, known primarily for its delicious cuisine. Food is where even the most productive all-inclusive packages tend to fail, but at Twin Farms, the food is better than the fine dining at many “classic” luxury hotels that charge an arm and a leg. There are no buffets, so a reservation requires a prior questionnaire about the likes and dislikes of the food, and both meals are accompanied by a sommelier. providing possible pairing options included and carefully preselected. You can also have either (or both, one and both) thanks to room service and either one or both grants you whatever you want: hot cookies and a bottle of Wine at 2 in the morning, delivered? Yes, and included.
Until recently, all those activities and cars only involved 20 imaginable accommodations. That’s why last month’s addition of 8 new treehouses is so significant here, a 40% increase in the number of sets available in an asset that occasionally sells out. There are four groups of two treehouses, side by side, but in each pair they are staggered and angled for privacy. They all run along a new circular road that was built for them on a former wooded surface, and from May to October everyone comes with a golf car and no cars are allowed (except picking up the car and returning on request). to maintain the wild atmosphere. Array They are all cantilevered over the hills, so that access is via a flat walkway, which does not require ascent or descent, while the furthest aspects of the sets, with large terraces and Floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the forest rise up to 20 feet from the ground. Ensemble Each unit is approximately 800 square feet with an amazing bathroom.
The new treehouses are designed to “nest” in a wild environment.
These are not treehouses in the sense of being on limbs built up in a tree, but rather because they are in the trees, with amazing downward and outward views of nature. Every element inside has been designed to embrace the view, and they are more contemporary than the rest of the options here, based on the design of Aviary, the most modern of the existing cottages. There is lot of reclaimed wood, huge floor to ceiling glass windows that slide open to create a three walled environment, large decks that are curvilinear so you when seated inside you feel close to the forest, but outside there is still plenty of sitting room. The entire concept was built around “nesting,” and while everything at Twin Farms is cozy and private, these are expected to garner a higher rate of room service orders. Like all the other lodging at the resort, they are full of the best of the best of Vermont artisans: Simon Pearce glass, Andrew Pearce wood crafts, Miranda Thomas pottery, Charles Shackleton custom furniture and so on. In addition to museum quality art found all throughout the property, the Treehouses add framed Audubon prints, since each is named for a native Vermont bird.
I’ve been lucky enough to stop at Twin Farms several times as it’s close to my home, and this is the first time lodging or dining has been added to the assets since I first went there twenty years ago – big deal . They were given a house to view the new units, and they are “tree houses,” the same way the Nantucketers call their luxury homes “cottages” or how the robber barons used “camps” to describe their properties in Adirondacks.
One of the hallmarks of Twin Farms is a sense of intimacy and escape from the crowds, and it is designed to disperse the few people who attend. Between room service, picnics, open-air summer restaurants, and the old-fashioned standalone pub, there’s a cellular feast at mealtime, but even if each and every guest decided to eat in the main dining room on any given night, there are empty tables and you still have your own space. To keep this going with the additional visitors, the Treehouses bring (a maximum of 16 of them), the first phase of the recent expansion has been to convert the old pub into a full-service restaurant, Twiggs.
The bar at the new Twiggs restaurant at Twin Farms.
Twiggs opened well in advance and in anticipation of the new lodging, but it’s a seismic change for a property long focused on gastronomic excellence, essentially doubling the number of options in the dining decision guests must make each night. It is more casual than the main dining room, which skews multiple courses, and set up so you could grab something as simple as a cheeseburger (of course, made from grass-fed, drug free beef from a local Vermont farm described on the menu and topped with award-winning Vermont cheeses), or a full 3-4 course dinner. It has a new elaborate kitchen that is also used to teach complimentary cooking classes offered regularly for guests, and the centerpiece is a huge wood fired Argentinean style grill. Twiggs has a full bar in front and a tavern feel, and the food was amazing, making deciding where to have dinner about the heaviest lifting you will ever do have to do if you stay at this fabulous property. The round of current improvements to what was already one of the most astounding resorts in the country is not over yet, but the next phases are top secret.
Always a popular holiday spot, the Eternal City is warmer than ever and the Telegraph has just named it one of the 20 global destinations in 2024, the only place in Italy to make the list. They cite the opening of several luxury hotels, new restaurants, gardens, and pedestrian spaces as reasons, but I would turn up the food, as Rome has its own cuisine and a variety of regional Italian specialties.
My last wonderful experience in a Roman hotel was a new and extensively renovated hybrid hotel. Formerly Naiadi Palace, this luxury asset was part of Boscolo Hotels, a family-owned business that owned several 5-star homes in Italy, but was later sold and its hotels split. This gem was purchased through Minor Hotel Group, a major luxury hotel player founded in Thailand and expanding its brands around the world. These include Elewana Collection, one of Africa’s most productive luxury safari operators, Europe-founded NH Hotels, which already owns several luxury hotels in Italy in addition to Rome, and Avani Hotels, which has dozens of luxury hotels and resorts around the world. Pacific. Rim, as well as the Middle East, Mexico, Australasia, Africa, and now Europe.
It’s hard to believe, but this lobby bar did not exist before the recent renovation.
But this mammoth asset was reserved for Minor’s flagship luxury brand, Anantara, and was its first in Italy (temporarily followed last year by a hotel on the Amalfi Coast). In Europe, Anantara has pursued a strategy of sourcing old, iconic historic hotels and buildings and transforming them, each with a sense of history and a position that cannot be built from scratch today. The Anantara Palazzo Naiadi hotel in Rome is the best example: originally two private palaces with semicircular porticos surrounding one side of the Piazza della Repubblica, built in 1887 by the prominent Italian architect Gaetano Koch (who designed the headquarters of the Banca d’Italia ). and the United States Embassy). The palaces were combined about two decades ago and, the exterior is perfect, with a striking curved façade, in one aspect you can still see the connection, as wonderful efforts have been made to maintain and highlight the classical architecture, adding antique woods and exposed. The Anantara Rome opened perhaps too temporarily and only had all its facilities in place last year, but now that the ongoing renovation and expansion is complete, it is a very sensible option in the Italian capital.
The hotel is located on the site of the Baths of Diocletian, the most sumptuous in a city whose ancient Roman population was crazy about thermal baths, and it was here that the rich and tough came to shower in the waters. The construction hangs over the ancient ruins and new glass panels on the ground allow you to gaze at the foundations, pools, and traditionally excavated mosaics as you walk through the property. Anantara, based in Asia, stands out for the quality and breadth of its spas. The exclusive remedies here are therefore encouraged through Roman history, adding olive oil, local honey, sea salt and mud, while the spa suites are striking trendy treatment rooms built with local stone materials. There’s even a “gladiator facial” for men, as well as Ayurvedic remedies from Anantara’s Asian roots.
INEO at Anantara is Rome’s last gourmet restaurant, small and intimate with 28 seats.
The original hotel, built from luxury palaces, had plenty of marble and fine woodwork everywhere, and the renovation expanded on this, even sourcing marble for the same Italian quarries. Almost every hotel on earth this grand has a showpiece lobby bar, but this was notably lacking, so they added an imposing new “classic” round cocktail bar beneath a giant chandelier in a domed space, a massive redo of the first floor that looks like it has been there since palace days.
Besides the lobby bar and spa, additions include two new restaurants. INEO (from the Latin for “new beginning”), is a new celebration-worthy fine dining gourmet restaurant with just 28 seats. It’s gorgeous, elegant and helmed by Executive Chef Heros de Agostinis, who was born just a few hundred meters from the kitchen, though he has cooked around the world, with 25-plus years in Michelin starred restaurants and the most famous possible mentors, multi-starred Heinz Beck, and history’s most renowned culinary superstar, Joel Robuchon. On top of the hotel now sits one of the largest rooftop bars in Rome, year-round with indoor and outdoor spaces. Anantara brought in influential Portuguese celebrity chef Chef Olivier da Costa to open SEEN by Olivier, a fusion restaurant melding foods of Italy, Brazil and Japan, with stunning city views in every direction. The attached SEEN by Olivier Bar serves cocktails, sushi, and DJ supplied music. There’s also a rooftop swimming pool.
The new rooftop is one of the largest in Rome, with a restaurant, seperate bar/nightclub and … [+] swimming pool.
Although breakfast included is the norm in Europe and luxury hotels tend to offer extensive buffets, this one is exceptional even by Italian luxury standards, it’s among my all-time favorites, it’s located in an exclusive area on the grounds currently for breakfast only and overnight stays only. guests, with spectacular views of Piazza della Repubblica and its famous masterpiece, the Fountain of the Naiads. The sublime buffet adds a full menu of optional cooked-to-order dishes, featuring premium produce and local Roman cuisine that rotates daily.
The renovated rooms are large enough for an urban hotel, and the set is eclectic, with rare loft duplexes on two levels, ideal for families. Executive Suites and Double Presidential Suites feature some of the most sumptuous hotel bathrooms in the world, with extras. such as an oversized hot tub with waterfall, a huge walk-in shower, and a separate full steam room or Turkish steam room. The most productive rooms feature authentic balconies and terraces where you can sip cocktails or room service, enjoying the Buena vista of the Piazza, which is back for the city’s hotels.
Although not part of the renovation, a unique facet of its assets is its location, on the outskirts of the city center, close enough to the main tourist sites to walk, but away from the city’s worst traffic. unnoted city. and the open-air streets constantly packed with noisy, selfie-taking tourists, as is the case with many luxury hotels here. It’s a very easy walk (I did it even with luggage) from Rome’s main exercise station, Termini, which is not only a transit hub but is now a destination in its own right, with the fabulous Mercato Centrale, one of the more productive in next-gen multiplayer. . -Food halls that offer the most productive of Roman cuisine. There is a metro station under Piazza della Repubblica, literally seconds from the front door, line A, which leads directly to the famous Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps, the center of Rome’s ancient historic district, just a stone’s throw away. two stops (also a simple ride), and is the most productive way to get to the Vatican, just six stops away.