’Tis the season for end-of-year forecasting and we’d be remiss if we didn’t turn our attention to Southern hotels. A recent travel trends report found that Gen Z and Millennial travelers are officially over the one-and-done hotel stay. Instead of parking it at a single property, they’re stitching together multi-stop itineraries to sample a destination or region from every possible angle. And good news for Southerners and those visiting: Next year is stacked with splashy openings begging to be added to a hop-around list. Here are seven we’ve got our eyes on.
The Cooper
Charleston, South Carolina
In terms of splashy new stays, few rival The Cooper, Charleston’s first downtown waterfront hotel, which is scheduled to open in March. The 191-key property, from Beemok Hospitality Collection developer Ben Navarro’s empire, brings a gasp-inducing fourth floor infinity pool overlooking Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter in the distance. Chef Nick Dugan of Sorelle leads a classy Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, the Crossing, and did we mention there’s a private dock with yachts available for guests’ use? This will be the ultimate bragging rights booking of the new year.
Hotel Daphne
Houston, Texas
Houston Heights was Texas’s first planned community, imagined as an 1890s utopian enclave just four miles from downtown. Opening this winter, Hotel Daphne aims to honor that legacy, weaving its five stories into the neighborhood’s historic fabric. The property will spotlight rotating original works of art and debut Hypsi, an Italian restaurant led by two-time James Beard Award nominee Terrence Gallivan and inspired by the secret drinking clubs that once thrived in the neighborhood during Prohibition.
Olde Naples Hotel
Naples, Florida
Thanks to period dramas such as The Gilded Age, vintage luxury is back in a big way, including at the forthcoming Olde Naples Hotel. Set to open in early 2026 at the corner of Third Street South, the Opal Collection’s newest Gulf Coast boutique retreat pays homage to the original Naples Hotel—the city’s first, which welcomed guests from 1889 to 1979. Expect reimagined nineteenth-century glamour: a grand columned lobby, mirrored ceiling dome, and a vintage-inspired key-box wall showcasing artifacts from Naples’s past. A distinctly modern touch: dog-friendly perks like welcome treats for distinguished pups.
The SongTeller Hotel
Nashville, Tennessee
Dolly Parton fans, consider Nashville’s forthcoming SongTeller Hotel your end all, be all accommodation. Part (fittingly) pink-accented hotel, part museum, it’s a testament to the icon’s blonde ambition in every way. Guests will find 245 rooms and suites in addition to Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum, the largest exhibition dedicated to Parton to date, which will span the entire third floor of the hotel. Book now ahead of the summer 2026 opening.
The Monarch San Antonio, Curio Collection by Hilton
San Antonio, Texas
A monarch may evoke a fluttery butterfly, but The Monarch hotel is anything but fragile—this is a full-on San Antonio sovereign. The seventeen-story Curio Collection by Hilton property is finally set to reign over Hemisfair Park, just a quick stroll from the Alamo, in early 2026. Expect two hundred guest rooms, a dramatic curved tower, and sweeping skyline views.
The Heirloom
Laurel, Mississippi
This summer, Jim and Mallorie Raspberry and business partners Josh and Emily Nowell had just opened reservations to The Heirloom, their new thirty-room boutique hotel in Laurel, when the unthinkable happened. A fire broke out on August 26. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it was a major setback for the team that had partnered with friends and HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier to film the entire renovation over the past year for the show Home Town: Inn This Together. The good news for fans of the series and lovers of historic boutique inns: The Heirloom will rise again in 2026, and will also come with a cooking school and a retail store filled with The Napiers’ Scotsman Co. kitchen goods.
Hotel Thoroughbred
Paris, Kentucky
The Hotel Thoroughbred, a charming nineteen-room retreat housed in a restored 1891 building, is set to open just in time for the Keeneland Spring Meet in April. Perfect for travelers seeking a boutique, equestrian-themed stay, the property promises peak Bluegrass polish. The thoughtful renovation revealed Corinthian columns and a cast-iron face hidden for decades above a drop ceiling and walls, and on its facade is a recently debuted mural titled Sunday Silence by equine artist Jaime Corum, which depicts the iconic victory of the 1989 Kentucky Derby winner.
