This new NC hotel ranks among world’s best. Why it’s ‘worth traveling’ to visit
A North Carolina hotel is making a big impression — just months after opening its doors to visitors.
Now, The Flat Iron Hotel in Asheville ranks among the world’s best new places to stay. It was one of 100 properties across the globe to earn a spot on the list of “hotels worth traveling for this year,” according to results published Wednesday, April 16.
To create the list, Travel + Leisure magazine sent a team of reporters and editors to about 150 hotels in 44 countries. Each of the properties had opened for the first time or completed a renovation between February 2024 and February 2025, a spokesperson told McClatchy News via email.
“We stayed at top-tier resorts from big-name brands, independently owned boutique hotels that are redefining city neighborhoods, and even a lavish, overwater Maldives situation that will run you more than $5,000 a night,” the magazine wrote in its report.
What makes the Asheville hotel special?
The Flat Iron Hotel was the only destination in North Carolina to earn a spot on the magazine’s global “It List.” It received a nod for evoking the past with its “art deco elements, like an original brass letterbox hanging between two hand-crank elevators, and a 1939 red Steinway piano in the lobby.”
It turns out, the downtown Asheville building was “one of the first skyscrapers built in this booming mountain town during its 1920s heyday,” the hotel wrote on its website.
After a restoration, the property started welcoming overnight guests in May. Today, rates for double rooms at the 71-room boutique hotel start at $249 per night, Travel + Leisure wrote in its new report and in past coverage.
“At various points in its history, the building contained an array of businesses — including a bar, a dance studio, a detective’s office, and a barbershop — and throughout the hallways, a series of plaques depict the lives of some of the characters who worked there,” the magazine wrote. “Meanwhile, Luminosa, the ground floor restaurant, honors Appalachia’s foodways.”
The restaurant received praise for dishes with ties to local farmers. Then there’s the hotel bar, which serves drinks made from “kitchen trim, foraged ingredients, and local spirits.”
The Flat Iron Hotel received the worldwide honor after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Western North Carolina in late September. Without directly mentioning the storm, the hotel in November said it was reopening to visitors and restaurant diners.
“It’s an absolute blessing to be able to feed friends and neighbors at this time, using ingredients grown just down the road,” the hotel wrote in a Facebook post.
It’s not the first time a recently-launched Asheville hotel has received wide recognition. Last year, The Restoration Asheville — a hotel that said it was “inspired by the free-spirited culture of the local community” — made it onto the “It List.”
This time around, Travel + Leisure said it didn’t list the world’s best new hotels in ranked order. Of the top 100 places to stay, about a dozen were in the United States, results show.
