The Points Guy’s best new hotels of 2025 list spotlights the year’s most strategic openings and reopenings for points travelers, from iconic returns like Waldorf Astoria New York to the new wave of outdoors stays now built into major loyalty programs.
If your 2026 travel planning includes a points spreadsheet, a hotel wish list, and the suspicion that the best redemptions vanish before you finish your coffee, The Points Guy just did some of the scouting for you. Its travel team published a roundup of the hotels that impressed it most in 2025, spanning headline reopenings, shiny new points-friendly resorts, and a growing class of outdoors properties designed for travelers who like hiking all day and still want hot water and a real mattress at night. It is the kind of list that turns wanderlust into bookable tabs.
Take the Waldorf Astoria New York. The Points Guy notes that it returned after an eight-year renovation, with the room count reduced to 375 from about 1,400, and with a reopening that sent a very specific signal to Hilton loyalists: some of the biggest “wait, you can book that with points?” properties are back in play.
Or consider Park Hyatt Tokyo, the Shinjuku landmark that The Points Guy says reopened earlier this month after a long closure and refurbishment. That matters if you have ever wondered whether a renovation is worth the disruption. With points hotels, the upside is simple: a refreshed product can be the same award chart price, but a meaningfully different stay.
“So dust off those suitcases, grab your favorite credit card for earning points on travel and get ready to take a journey around the world as you peruse our favorite hotel openings in 2025,” writes Ellie Nan Storck.
The editors also underline a second reality of 2025 travel: more people are stacking loyalty points with premium credit card portals. It name-checks Chase’s The Edit and American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts as two ways travelers are chasing benefits, from upgrades to late checkout, even at independent-feeling luxury properties.
The trend hiding in plain sight: outdoors gets a luxury Upgrade
The Points Guy list shows that the outdoors is no longer the opposite of points travel. It is increasingly the point.
The Points Guy calls out Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors as a collection of more than 450 outdoor-centric hotels, including brands like Trailborn Hotels and Postcard Cabins, framed around easy access to skiing, hiking, glamping, and other “just add daylight” adventures. That is a big shift from the old loyalty playbook, where nature-forward trips often meant forfeiting points accrual, elite credit, and familiar booking tools.
Hilton is pushing in the same direction with Hilton Honors Adventures. On Hilton’s website, it describes the program as a way to “dream, book, earn, and redeem Points for immersive, adventure-driven travel experiences around the world,” with partners that include AutoCamp. In other words, points are being marketed not just as a discount on a room, but as a currency for experiences that look more like a trip.
That framing helps explain why properties like AutoCamp Sequoia and Under Canvas Columbia River Gorge land so naturally on the list. The pitch is not survivalist camping. It is a soft landing after the fun part, and a booking path that still fits inside a loyalty account.
The hotels TPG says wowed it most
Here is the truncated version of the roundup, in the format you can actually paste into a notes app.
- 1 Hotel Seattle, Seattle
- Andaz Miami Beach, Miami Beach
- AutoCamp Sequoia, near Sequoia National Park
- InterContinental Indianapolis, Indianapolis
- Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Walt Disney World area
- Trailborn Highlands, Highlands
- Under Canvas Columbia River Gorge
- Universal Helios Grand Hotel, Orlando
- Waldorf Astoria New York, New York City
- Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo a Ritz-Carlton Reserve
- Rosewood Mandarina, near Puerto Vallarta
- The St. Regis Aruba Resort
- The St. Regis Cap Cana Resort, Punta Cana
- W Punta Cana Adult All-Inclusive, Punta Cana
- Zemi Miches Punta Cana All-Inclusive Resort Curio Collection by Hilton, Playa Esmeralda area
- 1 Hotel Copenhagen, Copenhagen
- Casa Brera a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan
- Collegio alla Querce Auberge Resorts Collection, near Florence
- Fairmont Golden Prague, Prague
- JW Marriott Crete Resort and Spa, Crete
- Kimpton Main Frankfurt, Frankfurt
- Rosewood Amsterdam, Amsterdam
- Sax Paris LXR Hotels and Resorts, Paris
- W Florence, Florence
- Capella Taipei, Taipei
- JW Marriott Hotel Tokyo, Tokyo
- The Oberoi Vindhyavilas Wildlife Resort Bandhavgarh, Bandhavgarh area
- Park Hyatt Tokyo, Tokyo
- Patina Osaka, Osaka
- Regent Bali Canggu, Canggu
- Waldorf Astoria Osaka, Osaka
- Canopy by Hilton Cape Town Longkloof, Cape Town
- Park Hyatt Johannesburg, Johannesburg
- The Sundays, Hamilton Island
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