
The 57th Street entrance to the brand new, $375 million, Park Hyatt New York (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
If you like new or renovated hotels as much as we do, you’ll be pleased to know that investors are set to spend a record $6 billion on upgrades and new properties this year. That’s a 7% increase over last year, which set the previous record.
There are a whopping 400,000 new hotel rooms in the US development pipeline as of this month– that’s 14% more than this time last year according to STR. So if you like “new” when it comes to hotels, you are in luck.

Where most new hotels are under construction (Source: STR /Hotel News Now)
Many hotels were in desperate need of updating, especially as our appetite for technology has accelerated well beyond the previous standard. The impact of the recession of 2009-2010, in which there was a scary 40% drop in hotel capital expenditures, was a deferral of important and necessary investments. The hotel industry has now come full circle from those dark days.
Where are hotels sinking the most dollars?
- Smart TVs and improved wi-fi network access to take advantage of these multi-media, connected televisions. (Thank goodness.)
- Fundamentally redesigning hotels to include larger lobbies and public social spaces, reflecting the changing needs of the millennial travelers as that cohort grows into peak spending age.
- Improved and expanded meeting facilities, including connected technologies for more tech-heavy presentations and conference environments.
- Upgraded gym and fitness equipment to match rising awareness of the fitness-focused traveler.

Get this: A pool lit by chandeliers at the brand new JW Marriott Dongdaemun in Seoul (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
While these figures are limited to the US market, the trend holds worldwide (especially in Asia) as new projects come online with no-expense-spared designs. Plus, older hotels are digging deep for a property-wide refreshes to position their properties globally (like the Four Seasons Manele Bay in Hawaii).
With the markets steadily improving – and the stock market pushing near record highs – hotels are ideally positioned to benefit from the increased investments. Of course, this means hotels will keep up pressure on rates to recoup and enjoy return on the investment. Corporate negotiated hotel rates in the US for 2015 will increase 5.5-6.5% year over year, according to analysis by Bjorn Hanson, a clinical professor at New York University’s Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management.

A suite at the new Thompson Hotel in Miami Beach- opens Nov 21 (Photo: Thompson Hotels)
At TravelSkills, we love new hotels. They smell better, work better, feel better, and are usually bigger, brighter and hipper than others.
But new can also have its downside: Construction noise, service issues, locations in sketchy or “upcoming” neighborhoods. Some are so new that they don’t yet have a robust set of reviews on TripAdvisor.
In an ongoing feature, TravelSkills will report on the newest, most recently renovated and most notable business class hotels in the world’s most important cities.
And since the global hotel scene is always in flux, keep us posted with hotel tips, advice and recommendations from your trips in the comments below.
Latest cities covered:
Coming soon: Seoul, Honolulu, London
What’s your favorite new or newly renovated hotel? Please leave your comments below.
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Great! I was in one very nice hotel last year – Jakarta I think where the shower edge was about 2 feet from the bed. 100% clear glass shower … NO where to hide. Luckily, we don’t share rooms for work!
The whole “bathroom as part of the bedroom” trend is weird… we have a story in the works on this one. Stay tuned… — chris
Wow! You sure got around when you were there! Why so many different hotels? — chris
I’ve run into multiple versions of these ultra-modern/bathroom in the bedroom set ups as well all over Europe and Africa and hate them. I’d love to know the reasoning behind them and if anyone likes it.
Can I be a reviewer for these new hotels? Send me and I’ll gladly give you an objective opinion!
nice, I just stayed in Conrad, Millennium Hilton, Renaissance Seoul, and Park Hyatt during my visit in Korea. Can’t wait to read it!
It’s in the works! Will include: Conrad, JW Marriott, Aloft and Shilla Stay. All brand spankin new… and nice! –chris
I can’t wait for your next article on hotels in Seoul since I just came back from Korea after staying at 4 different hotels during the visit!
I’m glad to see that European hotels are catching this wave, too. For years I’ve put up with tiny rooms the size of a shoebox and bathrooms the size of a phone booth (remember those?) The newer hotels in Germany especially are quite spacious and have wonderful things like rainfall showerheads. My only bad experience with a new hotel in Europe was an ultra-modern hotel in Berlin that didn’t keep the bathroom separate from the bedroom. (Good thing I was a solo traveler on that trip.)