Luxury hotel brand Six Senses has signed two new sites in Italy, looking to expand its reach with openings in Milan and Lake Como.
Two agreements have been signed with Italian property company Gruppo Statuto. In both locations, the developer will convert historic buildings to create new luxury hotels. First to open will be the Milan property, in 2025.
Building an Italian presence
The additions will join an existing Six Senses presence in the country which includes Six Senses Rome, that opened in 2023. Also joining the portfolio is Six Senses Antognolla in Umbria, which is expected to open within the next year.
Six Senses Milan will feature just 68 rooms and suites, with an internal courtyard, spa, and rooftop bar and sky pool. It will be created from a historic building featuring Italian traditions such as arabescato marble, smoked glass and antique brass detailing.
Overlooking the revered north Italian lake, Six Senses Lake Como will be delivered via the conversion and updating of the Grand Hotel Cadenabbia on the lake’s western shore. A refurbishment will reduce the property’s room count to 102, providing increased space for amenities such as the hotel’s spa.
The Six Senses brand has gathered momentum, in the hands of the InterContinental Hotel Group, and will also be opening during 2025 in London. There, the 109 room hotel is being created from what was once an Art Deco department store, and was more recently a shopping centre.
Italy is the focus of a substantial amount of luxury hotel investment, and both the new Six Senses hotels will enter markets where other brands are opening up as well. In Lake Como, 2025 will see the launch of a 145 room hotel under Marriott’s Edition brand, created by reworking a 19th century property. And in the centre of Como town, the San Gottardo Como hotel will also open the same year, as part of the Radisson Collection.
A pipeline of luxury hotels
The following year, Marriott’s luxury Ritz-Carlton brand will make its Italian debut overlooking the lake. Grimit, the owner of the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Bellagio, which dates from 1873, will be completely redeveloping it to create a new luxury landmark. The reopening will revive a property that has stood unused for more than 30 years.
In Milan, new arrivals to the city’s luxury hotel market include Rocco Forte, and Rosewood. The first of these to open, in early 2025, will be Forte’s 73 room Carlton Milan hotel, following comprehensive refurbishment of a building in the city centre. Rosewood’s hotel, due to open in 2026, will reuse the former home of the Italian Commercial Bank. Not to be left out, hotel giant Marriott is preparing to launch its W Duomo hotel, and has a development partner preparing to create a new hotel for its Edition brand, too.