The Australian Hotels We're Most Excited About for 2027
Australia has never needed traditional luxury to make it extraordinary.
Some of its most memorable places to stay are found far from the obvious city addresses: wilderness lodges surrounded by ancient landscapes, vineyard retreats, private islands and properties where the experience outside your room is every bit as important as what's inside it.
But 2027 is shaping up to be an interesting year for Australian hospitality.
Major international names are preparing to make their Australian debuts, established properties are being reinvented and a new generation of smaller, experience-led hotels is opening in places that give travellers another reason to venture beyond the usual route.
For us, the most interesting openings aren't necessarily the biggest. They're the ones that could change the way we build an Australian journey.
Here are six we're watching for 2027.
Laval, Hunter Valley, NSW
Treehouse Hotel, Adelaide
Adelaide, South Australia
Adelaide's hotel scene is about to gain a rather different new arrival.
Opening in early 2027, Treehouse Hotel Adelaide will mark the Australian debut of the Treehouse brand, with 248 rooms in the city's new Market Square development. The building is already well underway, having topped out earlier this year.
But it's the location that makes this one particularly interesting.
The hotel will be directly connected to Adelaide Central Market, putting one of Australia's great food cities quite literally on the doorstep. The market has been part of Adelaide life for more than 150 years, and the wider Market Square redevelopment is bringing new restaurants, retail and public spaces into the precinct.
For us, that's what makes Treehouse much more than another new city hotel.
Adelaide is an excellent starting point for a South Australian journey built around food and wine. Spend a few days exploring the city and its markets and restaurants before continuing into the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley or McLaren Vale — or travel further afield to Kangaroo Island.
Treehouse itself is intended to have a more relaxed, design-led personality than a traditional five-star city hotel, with an all-day restaurant and bar, outdoor dining and spaces designed to connect with the surrounding neighbourhood.
Why we're watching: An interesting international debut in one of Australia's best food cities — and a location that makes it particularly easy to build into a wider South Australian journey.
Laval, Hunter Valley
Pokolbin, New South Wales
Just a few hours from Sydney, the Hunter Valley has long been an easy addition to a New South Wales itinerary.
In 2027, there's another reason to make the journey.
Opening on the historic 165-acre Lindeman Estate in Pokolbin, Laval Hunter Valley will be a 65-key luxury resort and the first new-build luxury resort development of this scale in the region for around two decades. It's currently scheduled for the second half of 2027. Destination NSW
This is one we'll be watching particularly closely because the Hunter Valley works so well as a contrast to Sydney.
A few days in the city followed by vineyard lunches, cellar doors and slower mornings in wine country gives a relatively short itinerary two completely different personalities.
And that's often where Australia works best: not rushing between famous landmarks, but allowing enough time to experience the food, wine and landscapes in between.
Why we're watching: A significant new luxury option in one of Australia's best-known wine regions — and an easy way to add countryside, gastronomy and a slower pace to a Sydney itinerary.
Crystalbrook Aurora, Canberra, ACT
Crystalbrook Aurora, Canberra
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Canberra probably isn't the first place most international visitors associate with a luxury Australian itinerary.
Perhaps that is precisely why this opening is interesting.
Scheduled to open in early 2027, Crystalbrook Aurora will bring 225 rooms and suites to the heart of the capital at Garema Place. Plans include a modern European rooftop restaurant, high-end ground-floor dining, Eléme Day Spa, pool, sauna and gym. Crystalbrook Collection
The design draws inspiration from Canberra's architectural heritage, while acclaimed Japanese restaurant Raku is also moving into the development with a new flagship restaurant.
Crystalbrook has also built its Australian identity around what it calls Responsible Luxury, incorporating sustainability measures into its properties rather than treating them as an optional extra.
For travellers prepared to look beyond Australia's most famous cities, Canberra also opens the door to national museums and galleries, excellent restaurants and the surrounding wine region.
Why we're watching: It gives Australia's capital a significant new luxury address — and another reason for travellers to venture beyond the traditional Sydney-Melbourne itinerary.
Avani Wollongong Hotel
Wollongong, New South Wales
Sydney may dominate most first-time itineraries, but the coastline south of the city deserves considerably more attention.
Opening in 2027, Avani Wollongong Hotel will bring a new contemporary address to the heart of Wollongong, moments from both the city centre and Wollongong City Beach. The new-build hotel is currently planned with 107 rooms and suites, alongside a restaurant focused on locally inspired food, a bar and relaxed social spaces. Avani Hotels & Resorts
But it's the destination rather than simply the hotel that makes this opening interesting.
Around 90 minutes south of Sydney, Wollongong provides a natural starting point for exploring the New South Wales South Coast — a region of beaches, dramatic coastal scenery, small towns and national parks that can easily be overlooked by international visitors concentrating on Sydney and the better-known destinations further north.
For us, Avani could work particularly well as part of a longer road trip. Rather than flying immediately onwards from Sydney, travellers could follow the coast south, combining Wollongong with the beaches and communities of the South Coast and allowing the journey itself to become part of the experience.
It's exactly the sort of addition we like to see in Australia: a new hotel that makes it easier to explore somewhere beyond the country's most familiar stops.
Why we're watching: A stylish new base for discovering an underrated stretch of the New South Wales coast — and another reason to take the slower route out of Sydney
Avani Wollongong Reception
Artist’s impression
LXR Hotels & Resorts, Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Not every exciting hotel opening begins with a new building.
In early 2027, one of the Gold Coast's most recognisable luxury hotels will begin a very different chapter when the former Palazzo Versace, currently operating as The Imperial Hotel, becomes Australia's first LXR Hotels & Resorts property.
Following a significant renovation, the 200-room hotel will join Hilton's collection of individually styled luxury properties while retaining one of the Gold Coast's most enviable positions on Southport Spit, with direct access to the Broadwater and Marina Mirage nearby.
What makes this one interesting is the reinvention.
The property has been part of the Gold Coast luxury landscape for years, but LXR takes a different approach from the traditional global hotel brand. Its hotels are intended to retain their own identity and connection to their destination rather than conforming to a single international blueprint.
It also arrives at an interesting time for the Gold Coast. Look beyond the high-rises and famous beaches and there's another side to the region: excellent restaurants, the waterways of the Broadwater and a hinterland of rainforest, walking trails and small communities that can turn a few nights on the coast into something much more interesting.
For a Queensland itinerary, it could also provide a luxurious starting or finishing point before travelling further north.
Why we're watching: The transformation of an Australian luxury landmark, the arrival of LXR in Australia and the opportunity to experience a more sophisticated side of the Gold Coast.
Emirates Wolgan Valley, NSW
Emirates Wolgan Valley, A Ritz-Carlton Lodge
Wolgan Valley, New South Wales
One of Australia's most celebrated wilderness retreats is preparing for a new chapter.
Currently scheduled to reopen in the first quarter of 2027, Emirates Wolgan Valley will become the world's first Ritz-Carlton Lodge, bringing the brand to a remarkable 7,000-acre conservation reserve in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains region. The intimate lodge will have just 40 accommodations, each with its own private pool. Marriott Bonvoy
But this isn't simply a new name above the door.
Emirates is investing a further AU$50 million in the property, with the lodge being reimagined around its extraordinary setting. Plans include a Ritz-Carlton Spa, equestrian facilities, a naturalist hub led by a resident expert and guided experiences designed to immerse guests in the surrounding landscape. There's even a planned wilderness sleep-out beneath the night sky.
And that landscape is what makes Wolgan Valley so special.
Surrounded by sandstone escarpments and bordering the Wollemi and Gardens of Stone national parks, the reserve is home to kangaroos, wombats and wallabies, while the resort itself occupies less than two per cent of the protected wilderness. Emirates has been involved in conservation here for years, restoring habitat and planting native trees and shrubs across the reserve.
For us, it's the kind of property that can completely change the shape of a New South Wales itinerary. Rather than visiting Sydney and immediately flying elsewhere, a few days in the city could be followed by a journey into Wolgan Valley, swapping harbour views and restaurants for wilderness, wildlife and an extraordinary sense of space.
Why we're watching: The return of one of Australia's great wilderness retreats, reimagined as the world's first Ritz-Carlton Lodge — and a property where the landscape remains every bit as important as the luxury.
What Australia's New Hotels Tell Us About Luxury Travel
What makes Australia's 2027 hotel openings particularly interesting isn't simply the arrival of new places to stay. It's where they're opening — and the different journeys they make possible.
In the Hunter Valley, Laval is bringing a new luxury resort to one of Australia's great wine regions. In Wollongong, Avani provides another reason to slow down and explore the New South Wales South Coast, while Treehouse Adelaide places guests in the heart of a city increasingly recognised for its food and wine.
Elsewhere, established destinations are being looked at differently. LXR is reinventing one of the Gold Coast's best-known hotels, Crystalbrook Aurora is bringing a significant new luxury address to Canberra, and in Wolgan Valley, one of Australia's most remarkable wilderness retreats is preparing to return in an entirely new guise.
Together, they reflect something we particularly love about travelling in Australia: luxury doesn't have to look the same everywhere.
It can mean waking to kangaroos in a remote valley, spending an afternoon among the vineyards, following the coast on a road trip or having one of Australia's best food markets quite literally on your doorstep.
And that's why the most interesting Australian itineraries are rarely built around a single hotel or destination. The real magic comes from joining these very different experiences together — and allowing enough time to enjoy everything that happens in between.
Planning Australia for 2027?
Australia rewards thoughtful planning — particularly when you venture beyond the obvious.
At Woodward & Lane, we create tailor-made Australian journeys from scratch, combining exceptional places to stay with the landscapes, food, wildlife and experiences that make travelling all that way worthwhile.
Whether you're planning your first visit or returning to discover a completely different side of Australia, get in touch and let's start designing your journey.
Hotel opening dates and details are based on currently announced plans and may change as developments progress.