The island’s newest five-star hotel is set to open its doors to its first paying guests next week, according to developer Stephen King. The Loren at Pink Beach, above, a boutique resort on the former site of the Pink Beach Club, will celebrate its launch with a party this week before the first guests arrive on February 16. “This is a great year for Bermuda,” Mr King said. “We have a new hotel here, the first new hotel in a while and that’s exciting in itself. And there’s the America’s Cup coming. There’s a lot going on.

“Every time I used to come to the island, I thought this is what it needs. There are a lot of executives and 30 to 60-year-olds who want to travel and expect this when they go somewhere. This is what they want, and when they arrive on the island it just didn’t exist.”

While the finishing touches were still being put in place at the property yesterday, Mr King said he was excited to welcome the hotel’s first guests. While he said only 12 rooms will be available next week, many more are expected to come online in the following weeks.

“We are experimenting at the moment,” Mr King said. “We have various friends, family and workers trying out the rooms at the moment to make sure everything works, but the first fee-paying guests arrive on the 16th, which is really exciting.

“The inside restaurant we are opening on March 9, and we will be having a big party to celebrate the opening of the beach club in April. Then we’re into the America’s Cup, and there are going to be a series of events during that period.”

Mr King said one of the highlights of the new hotel’s design are its views of South Shore, something he said was a focus from the project’s conception.

“It always bugged me that no matter where I went the views were so inaccessible,” he said. “And it’s not just the ocean view. For me, it’s as much about the view down the coastline. Bermuda’s coastline is gorgeous.

“The great thing is that literally all of the rooms face the ocean. Wherever you are, any room of the hotel, in reception, in the restaurant, everywhere you have the views of Bermuda, which is what you are supposed to have.”

Each of the rooms also feature a large balcony, which Mr King described as “a living room outside”.

“Whether it’s windy or rainy, it’s still going to be 60 degrees out here on the worst day in Bermuda,” he said. “You can sit out here with complete privacy from your neighbours and enjoy the view.”

Included in the project are a few small homages to the former resort at the site, including a collection of pictures on display at the hotel’s main bar depicting the former Pink Beach Club, its demolition and the development of the new hotel.

Meanwhile, the hotel’s beach club is set to get a familiar name when it opens — the Pink Beach Club.

While online bookings at the hotel have only begun, Mr King said the response had already been positive.

“We have only recently been up on the various online travel agencies, but we have started to get bookings and we have been getting block bookings for the America’s Cup, which is great,” he said. “Every time we open up a block of rooms, we see the interest and prices go up. I think we are in good shape.”

Asked how he felt about the project finally becoming a reality, Mr King said: “It feels great. There have been cardboard models and sketches and little pieces of paper that showed what this was supposed to come to be like, and now we are here. It’s really a great thing to see something come to fruition like this, because it is a lot of work. And now it exists.

“It’s super-exciting. I hope international travellers and locals alike enjoy it.”