New hotels in Birmingham

Birmingham's hotel scene has been thin on genuinely new openings in the last five years — most of the city's high-profile projects have been refurbishments or rebrands of existing hotels, which this guide deliberately excludes. The one property we're tracking, The Dean Birmingham, is a serious adaptive-reuse project in a landmark building, but it has spent years moving through planning without a confirmed opening date. Until it (or something else) actually opens its doors, Birmingham remains a city where the best beds are found among its established names rather than its newcomers.

What to do

A weekend in Birmingham

Start in the Colmore Business District and City Centre, working through St Philip's Cathedral, the Museum & Art Gallery, and the restored Grand Hotel's Madeleine bar for a drink even if you're not staying there. Walk the canal towpath from Brindleyplace to the Mailbox for shopping and waterside dining, then spend an evening in Digbeth for its street art, breweries and live-music venues. On the second day, browse the independent jewellers and workshops of the Jewellery Quarter before catching a show at Symphony Hall or the Hippodrome.

A full week

A longer stay lets you range further: add a day trip to Warwick Castle or Stratford-upon-Avon, spend an afternoon at Edgbaston for cricket at the county ground or the Botanical Gardens, and dedicate a full day to the Bullring and Grand Central shopping district around New Street Station. Balsall Heath and Moseley reward a slower pace with independent cafés and Birmingham's best curry houses on the Balti Triangle. Keep an evening free to walk past Corporation Street and see the scaffolded shell of the old Methodist Central Hall — the future Dean Birmingham — as a reminder of how much of the city is still mid-transformation.

Neighborhoods

City Centre / Colmore Business District

The commercial and civic heart of Birmingham, and home to the one hotel this guide is tracking: The Dean Birmingham, planned inside the former Methodist Central Hall on Corporation Street. No other qualifying new opening has been verified here in this cycle — the neighbourhood's other headline hotel news since 2020 has been refurbishments (the Grand Hotel's restoration, the Leonardo Royal's rebrand) rather than genuinely new hotel operations.

Digbeth

Birmingham's creative and nightlife quarter, built around converted industrial buildings, breweries and street art. Despite heavy investment in bars, studios and event space here, no qualifying new hotel opening has been verified in Digbeth for this guide as of today.

Jewellery Quarter

A historic district of workshops and Georgian terraces turned into one of the city's most characterful residential and hospitality pockets. Existing boutique properties like Saint Paul's House opened here in the 2010s, outside our tracking window, and no new qualifying opening has been verified here since 2020.

Brindleyplace / Broad Street

Birmingham's canal-side business and entertainment strip, dense with existing chain hotels around the ICC and Symphony Hall. No new hotel opening meeting this guide's criteria — new building or first-time conversion, 2020–2026 — has been verified along this stretch; the area's most talked-about hotel project of the period, the Leonardo Royal's 2022 rebrand of the former Chamberlain Tower Hotel, is excluded here because it was already operating as a hotel beforehand.

Edgbaston

A leafy, largely residential district anchored by the university, the Botanical Gardens and Edgbaston Stadium. A new Radisson RED hotel is planned as part of the stadium's redevelopment, but its publicly stated target opening — spring 2027 — falls outside this guide's 2020–2026 window, so it isn't tracked here yet.

Eastside / Paradise

The area around the HS2 Curzon Street site and the Paradise Circus redevelopment is where much of Birmingham's next wave of hotel building is meant to land, including a boutique hotel planned at One Ratcliff Square within the Paradise scheme. As of today no operator, brand or firm opening date has been confirmed for that project, so it doesn't yet meet this guide's bar for inclusion — worth watching, not yet worth booking.

Which hotel for your trip

Design and heritage travellers

If adaptive reuse of historic buildings is what draws you to a city, The Dean Birmingham is the project to watch: a Grade II*-listed former Methodist hall and 1990s nightclub, reimagined with eight bars and restaurants and a 1,500-seat former auditorium turned event space. It just isn't open yet, so treat it as one for the future rather than for a trip you're booking this month.

Business travellers

Until a new qualifying property opens, business travellers are best served by Birmingham's established convention-district hotels around Brindleyplace and Broad Street rather than anything on this list — none of the hotels tracked here are open for booking yet.

Event and gig-goers

Digbeth's venues and the NEC/Resorts World arena circuit are well served by existing hotel stock; nothing new and qualifying has opened near either in this cycle, so plan around established options for now.

Cricket and sports fans

The planned Radisson RED at Edgbaston Stadium, with pitch-facing rooms for Test matches, is aimed squarely at this audience — but its spring 2027 target opening sits just beyond this guide's tracking window, so it isn't listed here yet.

Return visitors tracking the city's transformation

If you've watched Birmingham's skyline change over the past decade, The Dean Birmingham and the Paradise scheme's One Ratcliff Square hotel are the two projects worth keeping an eye on — both are real, both are years into planning, and neither has a confirmed opening date yet.

Frequently asked questions

Has The Dean Birmingham opened yet?

No. Press Up Hospitality secured planning permission in 2022 to convert the former Methodist Central Hall into a 150-room hotel, and the building's own architects still described the scheme as being at the "planning submitted" stage as of their most recent public update. In 2025 the Victorian Society and Historic England still listed the building as at risk, so there is no reliable opening date yet.

Is The Dean Birmingham part of an existing hotel group?

Yes. It's a project of The Dean Hotels, the boutique brand run by the Irish hospitality group behind Dean hotels in Dublin, Cork and Galway, plus a newer Berlin property — Birmingham would be its first UK location outside Ireland.

Why isn't the Grand Hotel Birmingham in this guide?

The Grand Hotel reopened in 2021 after a long restoration, but it operated as a hotel for over a century before its 2002 closure. This guide only tracks brand-new hotel operations — new buildings or a first-time conversion — so a reopening of a previously operating hotel doesn't qualify, however dramatic the restoration.

What about the DoubleTree by Hilton near Snow Hill?

It's excluded for the same reason: the building was already trading as a hotel (the Royal Angus) before its 2019 refurbishment and rebrand, and that refurbishment predates this guide's 2020 start date in any case.

Are there any brand-new hotels actually open in Birmingham right now that qualify?

Not that we've been able to verify against at least two independent sources. Several projects are in the pipeline — The Dean Birmingham, a boutique hotel planned within the Paradise development, a Radisson RED at Edgbaston Stadium — but none has confirmed a firm opening date within this guide's 2020–2026 window, and none is currently open for booking.

Will you update this guide when The Dean Birmingham opens?

Yes — this page tracks verified openings only, so The Dean Birmingham will move from "planned" to a full listing once its construction, operator status and opening date can be confirmed against independent sources.