Why Brazil is luxury hospitality’s next big play

When Ian Schrager created the ‘boutique hotel’ concept – first with Andrée Putman at Morgans in 1984, then with Philippe Starck at the Royalton, Delano, and more – he launched a five-decade transformation of the world’s gateway cities. Stylish lobbies, destination restaurants, and rooftop bars became magnets for travellers and locals alike, redefining urban hospitality from New York to London, Miami to Paris. But São Paulo, one of the world’s largest and most dynamic urban centres, remained an outlier. For decades, this metropolis of 20 million had only a handful of boutique properties that captured its cultural energy and met the global standard for sophisticated travellers.

But at the recent South American Hotel Investment Conference in Rio de Janeiro, industry professionals were discussing what has become a boom in high-end hotel development in Brazil – and how to keep it going in the face of war and other geopolitical risks, rising energy costs, and stubbornly high interest rates.

Despite headwinds, both new and old, Brazil has more than 150 upscale and luxury hotel projects that have recently opened or are currently in development, according to industry reports – a stark contrast to the high-profile handful that defined the market just five years ago.

The momentum behind Brazil’s hotel expansion

São Paulo’s boutique hotel market started with the Emiliano in 2001, the city’s first true luxury boutique hotel, launched by the Filgueiras family in the exclusive neighbourhood of Jardins and designed by Arthur Casas. Just a year later came the Hotel Unique, an iconic building and boutique hotel by Ruy Ohtake – its ‘unique’ form still helping to define the cityscape. In 2003, the original Fasano Hotel São Paulo opened – designed by then-partners Isay Weinfeld and Marcio Kogan – a timeless, luxurious masterpiece that honours the Fasano family’s four-generation legacy as Brazil’s finest restaurateurs.

For over 20 years, these were the only independent properties that reflected local character and met the global standard for a luxury boutique travel experience – largely due to market conditions that contributed to shaky investor confidence – both foreign and domestic – in the Brazilian hotel space.

But when French developer Alexandre Allard launched the Rosewood São Paulo in January 2022 – designed by Philippe Starck – the property became the tipping point for the Brazilian hotel market. Shortly after, in 2023, Fasano added a second hotel and branded residences – almost 20 years to the day of the original Fasano launch – designed by Studio MK27, in the buzzing neighbourhood of Itaim. Then, in early 2024, hotelier Otávio Suriani launched the Pulso Hotel in the Pinheiros neighbourhood, also designed by Arthur Casas. Suriani is also developing a second Pulso Hotel in São Paulo, set to open in 2029.

These properties were just the start of a pipeline that seemingly has no end in sight – the result of major shifts in the Brazilian market. ‘Three forces have converged to transform Brazil’s hotel market. First, domestic institutional investment funds and REITs – now fully regulated and active on Brazil’s B3, the second-largest in the Americas – gave developers a clear exit strategy. Second, post-pandemic domestic tourism hit record highs. Third, international capital finally viewed Brazil as a stable bet for luxury hospitality investments,’ says Laurent DeKousmaeker, head of Latin American Development at Marriott International.

DeKousmaeker launched São Paulo’s first W Hotel in early 2025, and an ambitious new Westin concept by Brazilian architect Jayme Bernardo in June of the same year. He and his partners are planning 98 new hotels in Brazil over the next five years. The other major brands have similarly ambitious plans with their development partners.

But perhaps no single developer is as bullish on Brazil as Alexandre Allard, who launched Soho House São Paulo in 2024, next to his own Rosewood property, both located just off iconic Avenida Paulista. He is also launching his own luxury hotel brand, Allard, with properties under development in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both designed by Arthur Casas.

Beyond Allard, Rio de Janeiro’s hotel pipeline is robust. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts recently announced a complete renovation of Ipanema’s Marina Palace Hotel, expected to open in 2029 as Four Seasons Hotel Rio de Janeiro at Leblon, and Patricia Anastassiadis has designed an elegant remodel of the Sofitel Rio de Janeiro Ipanema, scheduled to open in November 2026. Just 45km outside Rio, in Maricá, local developers Maraey have partnered with Marriott International to create an environmentally and socially responsible destination resort complex, including a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, a JW Marriott, and a hotel themed after the Rock in Rio, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, all opening in late 2026.

Also not far from Rio, the Emiliano Hotel Paraty is under development in the namesake historic colonial town and Unesco World Heritage Site that is an important part of Brazilian history. With architecture by Norman Foster and interiors by Patricia Anastassiadis, the project exemplifies another reason for the increase in ‘new’ hotel projects.

‘There are some really special projects that were started years ago, and it took a long time to get through Brazil’s environmental approvals process. Those are also coming online now, adding to the momentum we are seeing in the market. The Emiliano Paraty is over 15 years in the making – hard to believe for those outside Brazil, but that has been the reality here,’ says Gustavo Filgueiras. We first reported on Emiliano Paraty in our June 2010 Born in Brazil issue.

‘It isn’t just São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that are booming,’ DeKousmaeker adds. ‘Secondary markets in the Northeast, the Central-West, and the South are bubbling too. It’s almost everywhere. It’s an exciting time for hospitality in Brazil.’

In Ceará, on Brazil’s northeast coast, the Mana Hotel Cumbuco exemplifies this secondary-market momentum, bringing contemporary Brazilian design to one of the country’s most spectacular beach destinations. Designed by Guilherme Torres, it is an example of how sophisticated, yet locally relevant properties are proliferating in locations once overlooked by luxury travellers. Torres is applying the same modern gestalt, articulated in humble, local materials, on his second hotel in the area, the Silêncio Hotel, where carnauba straw roofs and hand-packed mud walls frame an open-air layout designed for Ceará’s year-round warmth.

The Central-West region, which includes the farmlands on the tropical savanna around Brasília and the southernmost portion of the Amazon, is also seeing unprecedented development activity. Perhaps the most luxurious addition planned is Arthur Casas’ luxury boutique hotel in the perfectly preserved town of Belterra, Pará. The hotel is currently being crafted from restored houses built by Henry Ford as part of a major area of revival anchored by the new Museum of Amazonian Science (featured in the May 2023 issue of Wallpaper*). Ford built an entire town of matching green and white buildings in 1934 to support rubber farming activities for his factories, all in the style of his hometown of Dearborn, Michigan. Ford’s rubber empire collapsed within a decade, but Belterra’s Midwestern American architecture – preserved as a national heritage site – now offers one of Brazil’s most surreal juxtapositions: white clapboard houses with front porches adjacent to the Tapajós River and the Amazon forest.

The southern region of Santa Catarina is a hotbed for development too, highlighted by a high-profile conversion just outside the state capital and an elegant new-build launch by a familiar name, near an up-and-coming city. In November 2025, the renowned Ponta dos Ganchos Resort became Awasi Santa Catarina, bringing the Chilean luxury brand’s adventure-driven concept – featuring private nature guides and personal 4x4 vehicles – to Brazil’s protected Atlantic Rainforest, near the increasingly popular city of Florianópolis. Yet another Emiliano Hotel is under construction here, too. The project is north of Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina, outside of Balneário Camboriú, the city known as the ‘Dubai of Brazil’ for its own building boom. The Emiliano Santa Catarina also features architecture by Norman Foster and stunning interiors by Patricia Anastassiadis, and will include both a hotel and luxury residences.

The boom signals more than just hotel development – it reflects Brazil’s emergence as a mature luxury market capable of supporting the kind of design-driven hospitality that has long defined global gateway cities. For the first time, Brazilian cities can compete not just on price or exoticism, but on design, service, and brand prestige. While Brazil’s hotel boom includes both international and domestic brands that deliver all three, there is only one homegrown company that is doing so abroad.

After opening in exclusive Brazilian destinations such as Angra dos Reis and Trancoso, Fasano Hotels has expanded abroad. That growth started in 2010 with a property designed by Isay Weinfeld in the chic summer playground of Punta del Este, Uruguay, then New York City, and now there is a beachfront Miami property under construction – all under the leadership of partner and head of hotel development Constantino Regis Bittencourt.

Constantino Regis Bittencourt and Gero Fasano are also entering Europe, with projects underway in London, Cascais, Sardinia, and Milan, which marks the family’s return home, four generations after leaving for Brazil in 1902. With the purchase of the 16th-century Palazzo Taverna in the city’s Quadrilatero della Moda, or Fashion District, the project marks a full-circle moment for the brand and signals that Fasano is quickly growing into a global luxury brand to rival many of the traditional names. But unlike its global competitors, Fasano is already established in virtually all of Brazil’s best destinations. The group remains truly independent, and its celebrated 124-year culinary history has become the ultimate competitive advantage, proving that Brazilian hospitality can compete on the world stage, even if the home market is still catching up.