Arty collaborations and variations on a theme

Jade Conroy

The new-era inn

The country house has long been a bastion of the English countryside but this year belongs to their cooler younger sisters. Beaverbrook (beaverbrook.co.uk) has recently opened in Surrey and includes an 11-bedroom Garden House, Italian restaurant plus cooking school and a treehouse hideaway. It joins Coombeshead Farm (telegraph.co.uk/ttcoombesheadfarm), which opened in Cornwall in autumn and is run by chefs April Bloomfield, of New York’s Spotted Pig, and Tom Adams, of London’s Pitt Cue Co. Food is a focus (Tom cooks up feasts featuring his own rare-breed Mangalitza pig), as is the community feel. Similarly, The Mash Inn (telegraph.co.uk/ tt-mashinn), recently opened in Buckinghamshire, aims to remove the barrier between chef and diner through an open kitchen and communal tables.

High and low-brow stays

We’ve had the “poshtel” (posh hostel) – now the next big thing is the hybrid hotel, such as Reykjavik’s new design hotel Oddsson (telegraph.co.uk/ttoddsson) which offers dormitory rooms alongside suites. The Robey (telegraph.co.uk/tt-therobey) and The Hollander (telegraph.co.uk/ttthehollander), recent openings situated next door to each other in Chicago, also follow a similar model: the former is a boutique hotel in an art deco skyscraper with skyline views and a rooftop pool, the latter offers shared and private rooms and a scheme whereby guests can connect on Instagram. Guests of both properties can access each other’s facilities.

Brands opening hotel chains

Watch brand Shinola and Brooklyn-born artisan furniture store West Elm, are just two of the brands which are opening hotels this year. The former will launch in its birthplace of Detroit; the latter is opening across the US (in Detroit, Savannah and Indianapolis). Restoration Hardware, another US homeware brand, will open a 14-room hotel and restaurant in New York’s Meatpacking District.

looks at what are likely to be the highlights of a year of innovation for hoteliers

Heading South

2016 saw a host of Latin American hotel openings and the trend continues apace with the eagerly-awaited Illa Boutique Hotel (illaboutiquehotel.com) in Quito (May 2017), Ecuador; while the Oekter Collection’s Palacio Tangara (oetkercollection.com) and a Four Seasons (fourseasons.com) will both open in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in spring and autumn respectively; Meliá Cartagena de Indias (meliacartagenadeindias.com) is set to open in Colombia in spring.

Hotel sweet hotel

If hotels are a portrait of the times, this period is all about décor with subtle design references. “Hotel guests are rejecting generic, fussy, cluttered hotel interiors in favour of simpler, calmer and more streamlined design,” predicts Muriel Muirden, vice president of global strategy for design firm WATG. “However, it still needs to be an aspirational home from home.” Head to the likes of the modernist Masseria Moroseta in Puglia (telegraph. co.uk/tt-moroseta), London’s Scandi-chic Leman Locke (telegraph. co.uk/tt-lemanlocke), or Barcelona’s Casa Bonay (telegraph. co.uk/tt-casabonay), which is “as trendy as a New York lobby, yet as comfortable as your grandmother’s living room”, according to our reviewer.

Secondary cities

The Ace Hotels group has popularised second cities and up-and-coming neighbourhoods – a Chicago outpost joins in 2017. Back in the UK, Irish hotel group O’Callaghan has picked Cambridge as the location of its first hotel The Tamburlaine (telegraph.co.uk/tt-tamburlaine), which will open its doors in spring. Likewise, new US luxury group Pendry has picked Baltimore’s Recreation Pier (telegraph.co.uk/ pendrybaltimore) as the location for its second property.

Cocktails are king

Fans of the destination bar rejoice. Wizard-like drinks expert Tony Conigliaro, lauded for his cocktail bar 69 Colebrooke Row (69colebrookerow. com) in London and for his liquid creations at The Zetter