Behind the Scenes: How We Create Our Best New Hotels List

Unpacked by AFAR

The best hotels are a destination unto themselves. On this week’s episode of Unpacked, AFAR senior deputy editor Jennifer Flowers reveals the 31 properties that made our 2024 Best New Hotels list and why booking a hotel is the most important choice you’ll make for your trip.

The list is a collection of the best hotels that opened in the past year, but these hotels are much more than just a place to sleep and store your clothes. There are places where you can literally touch history, like at the Raffles London at the OWO, where Winston Churchill once presided. If you love design, you can book a few nights at the Violino d’Oro in Venice, where everything you might touch was made by local artisans. Or, if you want to get off the grid and outdoors, there’s the Shinta Mani Mustang in a remote corner of Nepal that doesn’t see many tourists.

Jenn joined the podcast to talk about how she put together the list, what she looks for in a great hotel, and how—as she puts it—“when you check into a hotel, it can actually be the destination.”

Meet this week’s guest

• Jennifer Flowers, AFAR senior deputy editor

Resources

• Read this week’s show notes, including a full transcript of the episode.
• Read the full list of the 31 best new hotels.
• Follow Jenn on Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Subscribe to AFAR’s hotels newsletter.
• Follow the podcast to ensure you don’t miss an episode.
• Subscribe to AFAR’s YouTube channel for a full video of the conversation.

Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us.