Rich Travellers Now Pay to Sleep in Prison
One of the most talked-about rooms of 2026 is a prison cell. Ten of them, actually, knocked into one suite in Nara.
That tells you where luxury is going. A new glass tower can copy any amenity in a year. It can't copy a building where people were locked up, judged or sworn to silence for a century. So the big hotel groups have stopped building from scratch and started moving in: into embassies, banks, courthouses, convents and even a village school in Lapland.
Dozens of hotels like this opened in 2025 and 2026. We picked what, in our opinion, are the 10 most surprising, starting with the one that still makes people do a double take.
1. HOSHINOYA Nara Prison, Japan: once a prison
Nara's red-brick prison was built in the Meiji era and kept its shape for more than a hundred years. Hoshino Resorts opened it as a 48-room hotel in June 2026, joining old cells into suites. The one everyone talks about is "The 10-Cell": ten solitary cells turned into a single room. You can now book a night in the place people once tried to leave.
2. The Chancery Rosewood, London: once the US Embassy
Eero Saarinen designed this building on Grosvenor Square, and for decades you needed an appointment to get past the door. David Chipperfield reworked it, Joseph Dirand did the interiors, and it reopened as 144 suites inside a listed embassy. The gilded eagle is still up on the roof.
3. Corinthia Rome: once the Bank of Italy
On Piazza del Parlamento, a palazzo long tied to the Bank of Italy opened in March 2026 as Corinthia's first Italian hotel. The 1920s architecture and the original frescoes were kept, so you sleep a few steps from Parliament in a building that guarded money for decades. If Rome is on your list, it sits alongside the hotels in our guide to the best luxury hotels in Italy.
4. Rosewood Amsterdam: once the Palace of Justice
This canal-side building on the Prinsengracht started life in the 17th century and served as Amsterdam's Palace of Justice for generations. Rosewood restored it for years before opening in 2025. The staircases and original tiling of the courthouse are still there, and the people walking them now are guests, not defendants.
5. El Cortés, Mexico City: once a president's home
Behind a 1915 Art Nouveau façade in Roma Norte, a mansion that once served as a presidential residence now has 15 rooms. It's a Relais & Châteaux house, and several rooms come with their own terrace over the tree-lined street. It's one more reason why rich travellers now stay in Mexico City.
6. Castel Badia, South Tyrol: once a convent
This castle above the Puster Valley dates back to around the year 1000. It later became a Benedictine convent, the first in historic Tyrol. Today it has 28 rooms, and spa treatments now happen in the nuns' former cells.
7. Les Sources de Vougeot, Burgundy: once the home of abbots
The abbots of Cîteaux lived here from the 14th century, a short walk from the vines of Clos de Vougeot, the vineyard their monks planted. It reopened in February 2026 with 49 rooms, and the vaulted halls of the old residence are still there.
8. Six Senses London: once a department store
Whiteleys on Queensway was London's first department store. Since March 2026, a quarter of the restored building is Six Senses London, the brand's first UK hotel. The grand staircase still climbs to the glass dome where shoppers once looked up.
9. Newburgh Ella, Sri Lanka: once a tea factory
In the hills of Ella, an old tea factory with an orange chimney now holds 41 rooms. They're named after tea grades, Golden Tip and Silver Tip, and the views run straight down the estates where the leaves still grow. In its first year it was already named South Asia's best new hotel at the 2026 SATA awards.
10. Skýra Retreat, Lapland: once a village school
On Lake Norvajärvi, about 20 km from Rovaniemi, a 1950s village school is now a 15-room retreat. The Teacher's Chambers became suites, the restaurant sits in the old gym, and the lake freezes white under the Northern Lights.
Why this is where luxury is heading
Five-star hotels are easy to forget. The ones people remember have a story they can't get anywhere else. A marble bathroom you can find in any capital. A bedroom that used to be a judge's office, you can't.
That's why I'd book these first. The rooms are beautiful, but what you're really buying is access to a building that, a few years ago, would never have let you in.
If one of these is on your list, book it through us at rates reserved for travel operators: the same rooms at the private price.
Written by Mirko La Rosa, founder of Luxintravels. He has reviewed luxury hotels from the inside for more than ten years, and he slept in every hotel reviewed on this site. More about Mirko.
