The Castle Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel by Starwood Hotels & Resorts has opened on Lotus Mountain in China's Dalian, in a prime location overlooking Xinghai Square, Xinghai Bay and the Yellow Sea. The city of Dalian’s ports were used in ancient times as an international trading hub. As a nod to its heritage, the city hosts European-inspired events to attract tourists – for example the Dalian International Beer Festival

The SHA Wellness Clinic, a medi-spa in the Spanish village of Albir in the Sierra Helada Natural Park, will launch its new medical and wellness area by the end of the year. The 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) extension will double the size of the building and include a number of new facilities designed to offer guests an even wider range of macrobiotic treatments and anti-ageing programmes. The existing facility’s architect

The spa and fitness offering at Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Texas, US, is set to undergo a US$3.5m (€2.8m, £2.2m) renovation, which will transform it into one of the largest luxury hotel health clubs in the country. Luxury hotel spa operator Trilogy Spa Holdings is using its 'Well & Being' spa brand to market the new 176,000sq ft (16,351sq m) space, which is scheduled

Operators of public saunas in Germany say they will struggle to make ends meet if the rate of value added tax they pay is increased from seven per cent to the full value of 19 per cent. Access to saunas is soon to be classified a luxury by the German government, and will therefore taxable at a higher rate. Key players in the pool, sauna, spa and heat experience manufacturing

The Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) has published a standards guide for spa and wellness industry projects, the Guide to Hydrothermal Spa Development Standards. The book is designed to help spa owners, operators, architects and builders when considering the building of either public or private hydrothermal areas. It contains global terminology, definitions of hydrothermal areas and provides information on project planning, right through to key building and construction considerations,

Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine, a five-star retreat in Spain’s Duero wine region is transforming the estate’s former stable into a spa, complete with a ‘spa sommelier’ who will carry out blind tasting sessions for each guest before suggesting treatments based on individual preferences. The entire estate, which used to be an abbey and winery, dates back to 1146. The hotel opened in 2012 after a complete restoration of the abbey, with

Hotel des Dromonts, in the French ski resort of Avoriaz will reopen on 12 December following a €2m (US$2.6m, £1.6m) revamp after becoming part of the luxury Maisons & Hotels Sibuet brand. The 34-bedroom four-star property was originally designed by Jacques Labro in the 1960s and owned by the Olympic ski champion Jean Vuarnet and Gerard Bremont. Fifty years after first opening, the hotel has been reconfigured and decorated in

The Grade I-listed Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa in Bath, UK, has finally relaunched after a heritage-led refurbishment of the Georgian building that dates back to the mid-1700s. The privately-owned investment firm Topland Group acquired the two central buildings of the Royal Crescent – built between 1767 and 1774 – that make up the hotel and spa in 2012. Somerset-based interior design firm Jane Clayton and spa consultancy Spa Creators

Starwood Hotels & Resorts will launch its W brand in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2017 in the Hivernage district of the city. The hotel will be called W Marrakech and will be owned by Morocco-based Menatlas 14 S.A. – a company that operates within a global investment fund launched to take advantage of the many opportunities which have arisen in the Kingdom over the past few years. The fund has successfully

The globally-renowned Golden Door wellness resort in Escondido, California, has relaunched following an expansion from 377 acres to 600 acres, making way for gardens and orchards growing ingredients required for its new artisanal product line. In keeping with the resort's hyper-local food sourcing focus, Golden Door’s land expert Jeff Dawson has brought in 30 chickens to lay fresh eggs each morning and a new computer-controlled 3,000sq ft (278sq m) greenhouse

Tom Dixon and Design Research Studio (DRS) have unveiled Europe’s first Mondrian Hotel by Morgans Hotel Group on London’s Southbank. Located in Platner-designed Sea Containers House along the River Thames, the building was originally conceived to hold a luxury hotel but ended up as offices due to its location. Giving part of the structure back for its intended use is Tom Dixon and DRS, who have created a 359-bedroom hotel

Anantara Resorts Hotels & Spas will operate a luxury waterfront hotel in Dubai’s Culture Village district to launch in early 2018, directly facing the Dubai Creek. The 270-bedroom hotel is being developed by Dubai Properties Group, a subsidiary of state-owned Dubai Holding and is being designed by lead architecture company DAS. The project will break ground in Q4 of this year. This will be Dubai Properties’ third project after the

The Hotel Saint-Barth Isle de France is set to join the Cheval Blanc portfolio when it opens on 15 October, featuring the first Guerlain treatments to reach the Caribbean at its re-imagined spa. Acquired by Cheval Blanc brand owner LVMH in July 2013, the main 40-bedroom hotel has since been operated by LVMH Hotel Management. The existing spa, which took four months to build back in 2002, was re-designed in

Spas need to be designed more like homes, according to Bill Bensley, owner of spa design company Bensley Design Studios. In a letter to Spa Business, Bensley highlighted the challenge for the spa design will be to avoid repetition: “Long gone are the days of scented candles and floating flowers. Spas, as we know them, will fade away.” Instead, a more homely feel is advocated by Bensley, “with lots of

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science (formerly known as the Miami Science Museum), which is nearing the halfway stage of moving to a new US$275m (€212m, £168.5m) facility in downtown Miami, has received a donation of US$5m (€3.9m, £3.1m) to fund health and wellness programmes when the new facility launches in 2016. To be located inside the new science museum, the Baptist Health People & Science Gallery will

Las Alcobas, a Luxury Collection Hotel by Starwood in California's Napa Valley, is expected to open in October 2015 once a multimillion renovation is complete. The property is being transformed from the former Grandview Hotel & Spa into a 57-guestroom hotel which is owned and being developed by Spring Mountain Hotel – a joint venture between real estate development company Presidio Companies and Las Alcobas Hotel Group. To be conceived

The Urban Resort Concept-operated (URC) PuShang Hotel and Spa in Xiamen, China, is set to open in Q4 of 2016 with a Water Palace Spa, based on the importance of bathing in Chinese culture. The 175-bedroom hotel’s 3,200sq m (34,445sq ft) URSPA will include 12 treatment chambers – two of which are double treatment suites. The chambers, which occupy 2,717sq m (29,246sq ft) of the spa, are lantern-like cubes dispersed

Delos, the company that created the Well Building Standard™, has agreed to design, build and operate a newly-formed Well Living Lab with renowned US health provider Mayo Clinic Center. This will be a multidisciplinary lab focused on the interaction between health, wellness and the built environment. Delos’ Well Building Standard™ is a construction framework based on seven design categories including clean air, water and light. It includes elements such as

The Regina Hotel Baglioni in Rome, Italy, unveiled its Spa by Caschera on 1 September, designed by Milanese architects Rebosio+Spagnulo. The 118-key Regina Hotel Baglioni is one of the Baglioni Hotels Collection – owned by CEO Guido Polito – and is a member of Leading Hotels of the World consortium owned by Hotel Representative, AG. The Spa by Caschera will be managed by spa consultant and entrepreneur Paolo Caschera and

Plans for the new £25m (US$41.1m, €31.3m) St Michael's Spa & Wellness Resort in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK have taken a step further forward having been given unanimous approval by the Falmouth Town Council Planning Committee. Having met with the current St Michael’s owner and project developer Nigel Carpenter, the council has agreed on the plans on the basis that a layer of car parking and four eco lodges that were

The Hotel Bellevue has relaunched as a five-star property on the Croatian island of Lošinj, in Cikat Bay, in the coming months, after a €50m (US$67m, £40m) refurbishment by owners Jadranka Group. As the first five-star hotel in Lošinj, this property completes Jadranka’s portfolio of tourism developments on the island. The hotel is the flagship property for Jadranka – which was founded in 1947 by the National Cres-Lošinj County to

The historic former headquarters of the University of Durham in the UK could be converted into a luxury spa hotel under multi-million pound plans recently revealed by businessman Shaun Crawley. Crawley has purchased Old Shire Hall in the north of England with a view to create a 70-bedroom boutique hotel and spa, which he says will “rival the best in the area.” Plans are to transform the Grade II-listed Victorian

A planned super city in South Korea that will cost an estimated US$275bn (€202bn, £160bn) will include a host of leisure features including a theme park, casinos, luxury hotels, a 50,000 seat concert hall and a medical-themed ‘healing town’. Dubbed ‘City8’, the giant metropolis will create an estimated 930,000 new jobs and aims to attract 134 million tourists annually. Other features for the proposed city – to be built on

The Titanic Hotel, in Liverpool, UK, opened to the public on 5 July, in a Grade II listed warehouse. Situated in the heart of Liverpool’s docklands, the North Warehouse at Stanley Dock has been completed transformed into a 153-bedroom luxury hotel, featuring a restaurant, bar, spa and a large events space. The spa, which will open later this summer, will feature five treatment rooms encased in exposed brickwork arches, a

Viceroy Hotel Group and investment firm KIT Capital will redevelop the UNESCO World Heritage site of Obra Pía, a site which dates back to 1640 as the original capital of the Spanish Empire in the New World, Cartagena de Indias in Colombia. This site originally functioned as a Franciscan convent and was later home to a hospital, army barracks, orphanage and most recently – a school. Scheduled for completion in

Park Hyatt’s upcoming flagship hotel in New York will feature an artisanal spa called Nalai, which means ‘serenity’ in the language of the Lenape people – the original tribe of Manhattan. Scheduled to open in Q3 of this year, the 13,000sq ft (1,208sq m) spa will be located on the 210-guestroom hotel’s 25th floor, providing sweeping views of the New York City skyline and partial views of Central Park. A

The new Rosewood Guangzhou hotel, located on the top 16 floors of Guangzhou, China’s tallest building will be home two a two-level Sense spa. Coming in 2017 and located in the heart of Tianhe District’s central business area, near the Zaha Hadid -designed Guangzhou Opera House, the 251-bedroom hotel is in a 530m (1,738ft) tall building – amongst the 10 tallest in the world. It will have the fastest elevators