Here’s a look at the coolest new hotels opening around the world in June, from a glamorous Bahamas resort to a pair of casino resurrections in Atlantic City. Since not all of these are points properties, make sure you read up on the best credit cards to use when you’re paying cash for a hotel stay.
1. Four Points by Sheraton Auckland
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Number of Rooms: 255
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Traveling to New Zealand and hoping to burn some Starpoints (or Marriott Rewards points)? Until this month, there were no options available in the largest city of this Pacific island nation. Starwood/Marriott’s debut in Auckland is a Four Points right by Aotea Square and a short walk to Albert Park and the waterfront. 2. The rooms are sleek and modern, with floor-to-ceiling windows, mounted flat-screens and sliding panels of frosted glass separating bedrooms from bathrooms. 3. Up on the roof, the 20th floor Bluff Bar and Rooftop Terrace offers panoramas of the city and beers coordinated with Four Points’ locally conscious Best Brews program.
Loyalty Program: SPG
Price: From $120 or 7,000 Starpoints points per night. Book with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express so you can earn up to 5x Starpoints on eligible Starwood stays, depending on your elite status level. And remember that changes will be coming to this card in August, including new earning rates, and a new luxury card will be launching that earns 6x points on SPG stays, not factoring in the bonus points you’d get if you hold elite status.
2. Kimpton St. George
Location: Toronto, Canada
Number of Rooms: 188
Three Interesting Facts: 1. St. George is the first Kimpton hotel in Toronto, located in the lively Annex neighborhood 2. The rooms look great with leather headboards, arched armoires, cocktail tables and marble baths. All suites are equipped with TEAC turntable systems and stocked with vinyls from a variety of Canadian artists, specially curated by Kimpton’s Director of Music in collaboration with local record store Sonic Boom Records. 3. IHG is offering a 5,000-point bonus for stays booked through December 31.
Loyalty Program: IHG
Price: From $329 or 40,000 IHG points per night. Book with the IHG Rewards Club Premier Card in order to earn 10x points on IHG purchases.
3. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Number of Rooms: 2,010
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Hard Rock is the first of two new properties coming to AC, both of which are taking up residence in shuttered casinos on the town’s famous boardwalk. Hard Rock (which has been talking about doing an AC resort for almost a decade) has totally redone the tacky Taj Mahal, replacing the faux-Indian décor with a contemporary, music-focused aesthetic. 2. There will be 20 dining venues, including the huge existing Hard Rock Café, which is getting updated with new menus and a stage for live entertainment. 3. Speaking of live entertainment, Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Pit Bull and Christina Aguilera all have performances scheduled at the new casino.
Price: From $159 per night. Book with the Citi Prestige card to earn 3x points on your stay and take advantage of its nifty fourth night free perk, or the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card to earn 3x points on travel purchases. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card lets you earn 2x points on travel. Or, you can book with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which earns 10 miles per dollar spent on hotel reservations when booked through the special link at hotels.com/venture. You can also stack this return with hotels.com rewards which awards one free night per every 10 paid nights. Since the free night is based on the average price of the 10 nights, that effectively gives you a 20% return on your reservation.
4. Ocean Resort Casino
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Number of Rooms: 1,399
Three Interesting Facts: 1. At the northern end of the boardwalk, facing one of AC’s biggest and quietest beaches, Ocean Resort Casino is the reincarnation of the beleaguered Revel, a ground-up development that went bankrupt shortly after opening. The new owners smartly booked Hyatt to manage, making the Ocean Resort the first points hotel-casino on the boardwalk; it’s part of the new Unbound Collection. 2. New owners kept what worked at Revel (the lively pool club, Marc Forgione’s swanky American Cut steakhouse) and fixed what didn’t (a confusing and choppy interior layout, a turned-up nose to gamblers). 3. Housed in a 60-story tower, the rooms are spacious, modern and bright. Every single one has ocean views through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Loyalty Program: World of Hyatt
Price: From $149 or 12,000 Hyatt points per night. Book with the The World of Hyatt Credit Card to earn 4 points per dollar at Hyatt properties.
5. Rosewood Baha Mar
Location: Nassau, Bahamas
Number of Rooms: 237
Three Interesting Facts: 1. The Rosewood is the third hotel to open at the sprawling Baha Mar development on Cable Beach in Nassau. It’s also the most luxurious of the three, with most rooms featuring four-poster beds and French doors leading out to furnished patios. 2. The hotel has two beautiful pools — a three-tiered infinity pool for quiet swims and a meandering Lagoon Pool for families. The Rosewood is also the closest of the Baha Mar resorts to the beach, a quick walk past the huge villas, which are set to debut at the end of the year. 3. Summer special alert: Book a three-night stay by August 31, and get a fourth night free.
Loyalty Program: N/A
Price: From $595 per night. Book with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which earns 10x miles on hotel reservations when booked through the special link at hotels.com/venture. You can also stack this return with hotels.com rewards which awards one free night per every 10 paid nights. Since the free night is based on the average price of the 10 nights, that effectively gives you a 20% return on your reservation.
6. YO1 Luxury Nature Cure
Location: Catskills, New York
Number of Rooms: 131
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Surrounded by the Catskill Mountains, this retreat (formerly the Dirty Dancing-inspired Kutsher’s Resort) is rooted in wellness through yoga, Ayurveda and naturopathy. (The on-site museum explains the finer points of these disciplines for novices and casual fans.) The name is a play on “yovan,” the Sanskrit word for youth. 2. Come here to be healed and pampered in 68,000 square feet of therapeutic space, including a 5,000-square-foot indoor pool with reflexology walks and a hot tub, rooms designated for acupuncture, mud therapy, hydrotherapy, yoga and more. 3. All the food served in the tea café, juice bar and showcase kitchen is organic. There are zero processed foods onsite.
Loyalty Program: N/A
Price: From $850 per night, all-inclusive. Book with the Citi Prestige card to earn 3x points on your stay and take advantage of its nifty fourth night free perk, or the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card to earn 3x points on travel purchases. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card lets you earn 2x points on travel as well. Or, you can book with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which earns 10 miles per dollar spent on hotel reservations when booked through the special link at hotels.com/venture. You can also stack this return with hotels.com rewards which awards one free night per every 10 paid nights. Since the free night is based on the average price of the 10 nights, that effectively gives you a 20% return on your reservation.
7. Westin Hapuna Beach Resort
Location: Big Island, Hawaii
Number of Rooms: 249
Three Interesting Facts: 1. The Hapuna Beach Resort has emerged from a $46 million renovation as the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. The reno brought the property up to Starwood standards, with all redesigned guest rooms and a new lobby featuring interactive check-in pods and a vertical garden. 2. In recent years, Westin has made fitness and wellness a feature of the brand. Hapuna Beach offers active travelers a brand-standard running concierge and the Big Island’s only CrossFit Studio. 3. But what about the volcano? Yes, the Big Island is currently
experiencing an ongoing eruption, but it’s confined to a small corner of the island’s east side. This resort is located on the Kohala Coast, more than 100 miles away. Not to downplay the devastation, but things are business as usual in these main tourist areas of the Big Island (and on the other islands).
Loyalty Program: SPG
Price: From $299 or 12,000 Starpoints per night. Use the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express so you can earn up to 5x Starpoints on eligible Starwood stays, depending on your elite status level. And remember that changes will be coming to this card in August, including new earning rates, and a new luxury card will be launching that earns 6x points on SPG stays, not factoring in the bonus points you’d get if you hold elite status.
8. Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club
Location: Miami, Florida
Number of Rooms: 357
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Originally designed in 1940 by Art Deco architect Roy France, the former Courtyard Cadillac emerges from a multimillion-dollar renovation with new everything and Autograph Collection branding. The cost of the reno isn’t being disclosed, but the property was first bought back in 2011 for $95 million, with another $25 million sunk into renovations for its debut as a Courtyard. 2. The hotel is in the slightly quieter mid-Beach part of Miami Beach, near neighbors like the Fontainbleu and the Faena. There’s beachside service and two pools, one for adults and one for families — not a terribly common option in this part of Florida. 3. Bill Rooney Studio, which recently handled the renovations of the Peninsula Chicago, redid the Cadillac’s interiors. They celebrate the building’s Art Deco past in the guest rooms with geometric patterned area rugs, chain-and-pulley pendants and powder-blue chaise lounges.
Loyalty Program: Marriott
Price: From $229 or 35,000-40,000 Marriott Rewards points per night. Book with the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card to earn 6x points on your stay.
9. Delta Hotels Seattle Everett
Location: Everett, Washington
Number of Rooms: 232
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Marriott has grown Delta Hotels since acquiring the Canadian brand in 2015. This is one of the first new Deltas in the US, with more to come later this year and into 2019. 2. This property is in Everett, just north of Seattle and a good gateway for summer tourists looking to explore the islands of the Puget Sound or for business travelers who need proximity to Boeing. 3. Delta brand standards include free Wi-Fi and bottled water. Particular to this property is free parking, an indoor pool and a tech-wired library and media center.
Loyalty Program: Marriott
Price: From $131 or 25,000 Marriott Rewards points per night. Book with the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card to earn 6x points on your stay.
10. Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residence Emirates Pearl
Location: Abu Dhabi
Number of Rooms: 428
Three Interesting Facts: 1. Located on the Emirate’s seafront Corniche, the soaring Grand Hyatt has the sophisticated buttoned-up look of a business hotel but is equally suited to leisure. There’s an outdoor gym terrace, two pools (including an adults-only one on the roof) and a cigar lounge. The location easily facilitates meetings in the morning, followed by sunbathing at the beach in the afternoon. 2. Most of the rooms have Arabian Sea views; all have private balconies. Book a club level room for access to a huge Grand Club Lounge on the 26th floor. 3. Opening special: World of Hyatt members staying at Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residence Emirates Pearl can earn 2,500 bonus points for every five qualifying nights when they stay June 1, 2018 through August 31, 2018. Learn more and register by July 15, 2018.
Loyalty Program: World of Hyatt
Price: From $114 or 15,000 Hyatt points per night. Book with the World of Hyatt Credit Card to earn 4 points per dollar at Hyatt properties.
Check out our story on the Best Hotel Credit Cards for other credit card options when paying with cash instead of points.
Featured image by Melanie Lieberman / The Points Guy.