Travellers' Checks | The top 15 hotel openings to look forward to in 2020
- The most upscale of the lot is surely the 14-suite hotel opening in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris
- In Asia, the ones to watch out include the Capella Bangkok – finally – and Six Senses’ property near Jaipur
One of next year’s more interesting hotel openings will actually be a reopening, when The Century Plaza Hotel, in Los Angeles, emerges from a four-year closure and extensive renovations in April. Now with two new towers, and renamed the Fairmont Century Plaza, the hotel first opened in 1966 and is said to have been the first in the world to provide a colour television in every room.
It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the American architect behind the ill-fated World Trade Centre, in Manhattan. Speaking of Manhattan, Asia-based Aman Resorts and Six Senses will both be opening new hotels in the Midtown area next year.
One of the most drawn-out arrivals of the year will be that of the “much anticipated” Capella Bangkok, which was first announced back in 2009 for a 2013 opening. With 101 rooms and suites, the self-professed “gateway to the eternal beauty of nature” is located just upriver from another late arrival, the Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, which was originally scheduled for last year. Both properties are loosely promised for early 2020.
Waldorf Astoria and Raffles, meanwhile, should both be making their debuts on the Indonesian island of Bali sometime next year, with the former a few years behind schedule, and Raffles apparently on time, having been announced just last year. Both will be located on the Bukit Peninsula, just south of Denpasar and the airport.
The Raffles brand has been proliferating since it was sold to AccorHotels, in 2016, and another property will be opening in the state of Rajasthan, India, next year. The Udaipur property will occupy its own lake island in its namesake city and will be the first Raffles hotel in the country.