The most interesting hotels to open in Europe this year are not the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. They are a Maltese family house restored by the couple behind The Rug Company, a Victorian shooting lodge on the far north coast of Scotland, and a 1913 seafront building in Istria with a kitchen run by Ana Roš. Most have fewer than 40 rooms. Several were years in the making, and a few are still putting the final touches to spas and suites as 2027 approaches.
What follows is a shortlist of eleven boutique hotels that opened in 2026 or are due to open in 2027, spread across ten countries. Each one has a story beyond the thread count, and each is worth planning a trip around. If you are still deciding where to go, our travel section has more ideas, from city breaks to surf trips.
How we chose these new hotels
We started with the openings announced for late 2025 through 2027 and narrowed them down using four tests. The hotel had to be small, ideally under 60 rooms. It had to be independent or run by a small, design-led group rather than a global chain. It had to have something distinctive in its architecture, its history or its kitchen. And every fact had to be verifiable through the hotel itself or reputable travel and design press.
Where a hotel has published a starting rate, we give it in pounds with euro and dollar equivalents. Where no rate has been published, we leave it out rather than guess. Opening dates are given as the hotels and their press have stated them.
New boutique hotels at a glance
| Hotel | City / country | Opening | Rooms | Rooms from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casa Bonavita | Attard, Malta | Opened May 2026 | 17 | Not published |
| Luura Cliff | Paros, Greece | Opened August 2026 | 39 suites | £590 (€700 / $786) |
| La Darbia in Chianti | Greve in Chianti, Italy | Opened May 2026 | 17 suites | £310 (€368 / $413) |
| Jadran Heritage Hotel | Poreč, Croatia | Opened 2026 | 12 | £228 (€270 / $303) |
| Hope by WildLand | Sutherland, Scotland, UK | Opened May 2026 | 7, plus cabin and cottages | £1,100 (€1,305 / $1,466), all meals included |
| Villa Colette | Cap Ferret, France | Opened April 2026 | 28 | £341 (€405 / $455) |
| Serras Sevilla | Seville, Spain | Opened September 2026 | 43 | Not published |
| CORI Hornbæk Hotel | Hornbæk, Denmark | Opened September 2026 | 77, plus 5 townhouses | Not published |
| Herdade da Torre Vã | Ourique, Portugal | Due October 2026 | 21, plus 12 houses | Not published |
| EHA | Hiiumaa, Estonia | Bookings from November 2026 | 8 suites, 3 forest houses | Not published |
| The Zetter 717 Amsterdam | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Due to open in early 2027 | 24 | Not published |
Casa Bonavita, Attard, Malta
Opening: opened in May 2026. Rooms: 17.
Christopher and Suzanne Sharp, who founded The Rug Company in London, first bought this 18th-century house in Attard as a home of their own. Suzanne grew up in Malta, and after a restoration of roughly five years the house has become their first hotel, a project they say is not the start of a chain. Attard is one of Malta’s Three Villages, inland and close to the San Anton Gardens, which gives the place a quieter, greener setting than the coast.
Suzanne Sharp Studio led the interiors, and the materials do the talking: Sicilian marble, Murano glass chandeliers, textiles and pieces from the family’s own collection, and pottery from the Maltese ceramics house Villa Bologna. In the Valletta Bar, de Gournay has hand-painted a wallpaper depicting 17th-century Valletta. Many of the rooms open on to terraces, gardens or the pool, and there are two pools in the grounds, plus a spa with a hammam, sauna and cold plunge, and a gym.
Food and drink: Sirocco, the restaurant, takes a contemporary line on Mediterranean cooking, with a frescoed dining room and a courtyard under orange trees. Executive chef Dex Oseman cooks with seasonal produce, and the original house kitchen serves fresh juices and Maltese pastries.
Best for: design lovers who want Malta without the high-rise coast.
Nearest airport: Malta International.
Tip: the Folly Suite, set in its own oval historic building with a private pool and rooftop terrace, is opening later than the rest of the house, so check availability before you plan around it. Classic rooms sit nearest the smaller, more secluded pool.
Luura Cliff, Paros, Greece
Opening: opened on 1 August 2026. Rooms: 39 suites.
The first hotel from the new Luura brand, part of Morgans Originals, is laid out like a Cycladic village of whitewashed buildings on the Paros seafront. Elastic Architects designed it, with interiors by the studio Lambs and Lions. The art is the surprise: works from the Khoury family collection and new commissions, with names including Francesco Clemente, Claire Tabouret, Judith Hopf, Chantal Joffe and Tschabalala Self. There is a private chapel too, and ceramics workshops with the local artisan Maria Economides.
Food and drink: Mimi Kakushi brings contemporary Japanese cooking from a restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide, with a bar ranked on The World’s 50 Best Bars. Lenea serves Mediterranean sharing plates and cocktails.
Best for: couples and art collectors; guests must be 12 or over.
Nearest airport: Paros National Airport, with ferries from Piraeus as the alternative.
Rooms from: £590 (€700 / $786).
Tip: 19 of the 39 suites have private pools, so ask for one when booking.
La Darbia in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy
Opening: opened in May 2026. Rooms: 17 suites.
Gian Carlo and Matteo Primatesta, architect brothers who already run La Darbia on Lake Orta, spent years restoring an 11th-century hamlet on a 37-acre estate about 25 minutes from Florence. They used local materials and artisans throughout. The result is softly weathered rather than polished: stone hearths, pale limestone-white walls, beamed ceilings and freestanding clay bathtubs.
The suites are split across two levels. The lower Pine Alley level is arranged around a courtyard and an old tower house; the Hilltop level has the larger suites, private gardens and the spa. Each level has its own pool.
Food and drink: the terrace restaurant looks over lavender fields towards Panzano. Executive chef Matteo Monfrinotti cooks with Tuscan produce: think amberjack, fresh pasta with chicken alla cacciatora, and lemon tart with sheep’s milk ricotta gelato.
Best for: slow Tuscan weeks and wine country walks.
Nearest airport: Florence.
Rooms from: £310 (€368 / $413).
Tip: book the Hilltop level if the spa matters to you; it sits on that level.
Jadran Heritage Hotel, Poreč, Croatia
Opening: opened in 2026. Rooms: 12.
Built in 1913 as an annex to Poreč’s first hotel, this building on the old town promenade has been restored by Valamar as part of its Valamar Collection. There are only twelve rooms, and none has a number. Each has a name drawn from the town’s history instead, such as Lungomare and Kartolina, with original architectural details kept alongside newer pieces.
Food and drink: the ground floor belongs to JAZ by Ana Roš, the Slovenian chef’s restaurant, selected in the Michelin Guide 2026. The cooking is seasonal and local, the setting relaxed, and the room is open to non-residents as well as guests.
Best for: food-led weekends on the Istrian coast.
Nearest airport: Pula.
Rooms from: £228 (€270 / $303).
Tip: rates include a free boat transfer to Sveti Nikola island, so leave an afternoon for a swim there.
Hope by WildLand, Sutherland, Scotland
Opening: opened in May 2026. Rooms: seven in the lodge, plus a two-bedroom cabin and cottages.
WildLand’s newest property is a Highland shooting lodge built in the 1870s on the shore of Loch Hope, with Ben Hope rising behind. Interior designers Cecile & Boyd have restored it, and the seven bedrooms carry Gaelic names. An Cala, a cabin next door, has its own wood-fired hot tub, and two self-catering cottages sit by the loch.
The days are built around the landscape: paddleboarding, swimming beneath waterfalls, trout fishing with a ghillie, boat trips to Rabbit Island, guided tree planting and stargazing.
Food and drink: in-house chefs cook with produce from local suppliers, WildLand’s own estates and whatever has been foraged, with fire-cooked lunches in remote bothies along the loch.
Best for: walkers, wild swimmers and groups booking the whole house.
Nearest airport: Inverness.
Rooms from: £1,100 (€1,305 / $1,466) per room per night, including meals and house drinks; cottages from £425 (€504 / $566) self-catered.
Tip: much of the year Hope is let on an exclusive-use basis. Individual room stays run in set windows, so check the dates on WildLand’s site before planning.
Villa Colette, Cap Ferret, France
Opening: opened in April 2026. Rooms: 28.
Philippe Starck designed the interiors of this neo-19th-century villa on the village square at Cap Ferret, facing the Bassin d’Arcachon, working with Laurent Taïeb on a concept they describe as a “maison joyeuse”. It aims to feel like a cheerful family house: a bar with a piano and chess sets, a glass-roofed restaurant and a terrace with loungers.
Food and drink: chef Benjamin Six runs the restaurant, open seven days a week, and afternoon tea is made in collaboration with Pierre Hermé.
Best for: oyster lunches, cycling the peninsula and long Atlantic weekends.
Nearest airport: Bordeaux-Mérignac.
Rooms from: £341 (€405 / $455).
Tip: there is a spa and fitness room but no swimming pool; the bassin itself is the swim.
Serras Sevilla, Seville, Spain
Opening: opened in September 2026. Rooms: 38 rooms and 5 suites.
The Barcelona group Serras Collection has taken over an early 20th-century building on Avenida de la Constitución designed by Aníbal González, the architect behind the Plaza de España. Eva Martínez designed the interiors. The address puts the cathedral and the Alcázar a short walk away.
Food and drink: Fismuler, the well-regarded Madrid restaurant, makes its Andalusian debut at street level with Mediterranean and Nordic-leaning cooking. The Almagra Rooftop on the seventh floor serves tapas and drinks with views of the cathedral.
Best for: first-time visitors who want to walk everywhere.
Nearest airport: Seville.
Tip: book the rooftop for early evening, when the heat drops and the Giralda catches the last of the light.
CORI Hornbæk Hotel, Hornbæk, Denmark
Opening: opened on 1 September 2026. Rooms: 77, plus five townhouse apartments.
The largest hotel here is also one of the most interesting buildings. It began life in 1935 as a functionalist “Badehotel” by Ole Falkentorp, a seaside hotel meant for recuperation. The designer Afroditi Krassa has returned it to its original lines, with Scandinavian interiors and custom woodwork made on the owners’ farm. Jesper and Anya Brunander own it, and it has joined The Leading Hotels of the World.
Food and drink: Cori Table, led by chef Brian Mark Hansen, focuses on fish and shellfish, while The Jetty is the place for coffee and drinks.
Best for: a beach break that pairs easily with Copenhagen, about 40 minutes away.
Nearest airport: Copenhagen.
Tip: CORI Spa, with an indoor pool and Nordic hot and cold treatments, is due from November 2026; time your stay for after it opens.
Herdade da Torre Vã, Ourique, Portugal
Opening: due to open in October 2026. Rooms: 21, plus 12 houses.
The main house on this Baixo Alentejo estate dates from 1872 and has an unusual triangular plan. The owner, Turivã, bought the estate in 2017 and is restoring the abandoned farm buildings around it. The 21 double rooms are in the historic house, and the twelve Casas da Herdade each come with a private pool.
Food and drink: the restaurant occupies the old agricultural warehouses, and there is a winery with a tasting room.
Best for: slow countryside stays with horses, wine and big skies.
Nearest airport: Faro, with Lisbon as an alternative.
Tip: families or friends travelling together should look at the two-bedroom estate houses, which have their own pools.
EHA, Hiiumaa, Estonia
Opening: taking bookings from November 2026. Rooms: 8 suites and 3 forest houses.
Hiiumaa sits within the West Estonian Archipelago Biosphere Reserve, and EHA has been built for a maximum of 22 guests on private forest and coastline. Its programme follows what islanders call five seasons, and its retreats draw on an Estonian folk belief known as “earth faith”. It aims for Green Key certification and is designed for adults aged 16 and over.
Food and drink: menus are built around foraging, led by chef Peeter Pihel, and the spa centres on thermal rituals.
Best for: digital detox and Baltic wilderness.
Nearest airport: Tallinn, then a ferry or a short domestic flight to the island.
Tip: the online calendar currently runs from November 2026 to July 2027; the shoulder months are when the island is at its quietest.
The Zetter 717 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening: due to open in early 2027. Rooms: 24.
The Zetter Group, behind the Zetter Townhouses in Clerkenwell and Marylebone, is making its first move outside Britain with a canal house on Prinsengracht. The front building dates from 1810 and is in the Empire style; the rear structure goes back to the Dutch Golden Age. James Thurstan Waterworth, whose studio Thurstan designed The Zetter Bloomsbury, is working with aged brass, reclaimed timber, antique mirrors and rich textiles.
Food and drink: breakfast in the conservatory-style Garden Room over a private garden, and drinks and small plates in the book-lined Library.
Best for: fans of the London townhouses and anyone who wants a canal-side base.
Nearest airport: Amsterdam Schiphol.
Tip: with only 24 rooms in a five-star house, expect the first months of 2027 to book quickly.
Travel tips for booking a new hotel
New hotels are at their most flexible, and occasionally their most chaotic, in their first season. Ask whether the spa, pool or restaurant is fully open before you book, as several on this list are opening facilities in stages.
Sort your data before you fly. A travel eSIM is usually cheaper than roaming and lets you land with maps and messages working; our guide to the best eSIMs for travel compares the main options. Hotel Wi-Fi in older buildings with thick stone walls can be patchy and is often shared, so if you are banking or working on the road, it is worth reading our guide to using a VPN on public hotel Wi-Fi.
Remote hotels such as Hope, EHA and Herdade da Torre Vã are a long way from the nearest airport, so book transfers early. Our round-up of airport transfer services covers what is worth paying for. And if you are combining Malta, Greece or Croatia with time on the water, see our guide to the best places to go sailing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best new boutique hotel in Europe for 2027?
It depends on the trip. For design and history, Casa Bonavita in Malta and La Darbia in Chianti stand out. For food, the Jadran Heritage Hotel in Poreč has Ana Roš’s restaurant downstairs. For wilderness, Hope in Scotland and EHA in Estonia are hard to beat.
Is Casa Bonavita in Malta open?
Yes. Casa Bonavita opened in May 2026 in Attard, with 17 rooms. The Folly Suite, a separate building with its own pool, is opening later.
Where is Casa Bonavita?
It is at Triq San Anton in Attard, one of Malta’s Three Villages, in the centre of the island near the San Anton Gardens.
Who owns Casa Bonavita?
Christopher and Suzanne Sharp, the founders of The Rug Company. Suzanne grew up in Malta.
Which new boutique hotels are opening in Europe in 2027?
The Zetter 717 Amsterdam is due to open in early 2027 with 24 rooms in a Prinsengracht canal house. EHA in Estonia is taking bookings into 2027.
What counts as a boutique hotel?
There is no fixed definition, but it usually means a small hotel, often under 60 rooms, with a distinct design or story and independent or small-group ownership. We used those criteria for this list.
Which of these hotels is the most affordable?
Of the hotels that publish rates, the Jadran Heritage Hotel in Poreč starts lowest, from £228 (€270 / $303) a night.
Are these hotels suitable for families?
Some are. The Jadran Heritage Hotel offers family room configurations, and Herdade da Torre Vã has two-bedroom houses with private pools. Luura Cliff is for guests aged 12 and over, and EHA for those aged 16 and over.
When is the best time to book a newly opened hotel?
Booking well ahead is wise for small hotels, but it is worth checking which facilities will be open on your dates, as spas and suites often open after the main hotel.
