New Durham Hotels Earning Great Coverage

As Downtown Durham sprouts new opportunities to live, work, and play, it's exciting to see two recently opened hotels earn national recognition. The 21c Museum Hotel and The Durham are abuzz in the media.  And well they should be.  

These two properties are great examples of adaptive reuse architecture - a hallmark of Durham's unique sense of place and something that makes a visit here distinct. 

"Welcoming new hotel projects to Durham is exciting for both the business community and those visiting," said Shelly Green, President and CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB). "But remember," Green cautioned, "When a new hotel opens, all of their rooms come empty and it takes a lot of marketing, promotion and sales activity to fill them."

Construction is also currently underway or on the horizon for the yet-to-be-named Jack Tar and The Graduate hotels.  That means the current number of hotels (including B&Bs and inns) and hotel rooms in Downtown Durham is eight with 676 rooms and will soon be 10 with 901 rooms.

And that doesn't count other newly-announced  mixed use developments such as the 12-acre Hendrick Auto Mall site which is slated for an additional hotel.

What the national media, such as those below, are saying about these two boutique properties will certainly help.

21c Museum Hotel

CNN recently named the 21c Museum Hotel Durham among "America's artsiest new hotels."

The Huffington Post said that Durham has "one of the fastest-growing cultural scenes in the nation." mentioning the historic hotel building's "pedigree.'

Curbed said that the 21c doesn't have "your average hotel art,"

Forbes Life noted that "Durham has signature penguins—in fuchsia—which mysteriously move around the hotel throughout your stay."

Hotel Chatter proclaimed that "21c Museum Hotels Will Shake Up The Durham Hotel Scene Next Year"

The Durham

The New York Times reported on the hotel's opening, saying that the hotel "draws on local talents, from a celebrated chef to an indie record label, breathing new life into a former bank building downtown."

Condé Nast said, "The 53-room luxury boutique property features a buzzed-about restaurant helmed by James Beard Award–winning chef Andrea Reusing,.."


Travel & Leisure magazine, which named Durham one of the best places to travel in 2015, "loves the hotel's 'commitment to all things North Carolina.'"

In addition to the two above, the Residence Inn Durham Duke University Medical Area is also now open on Main Street between Watts and Buchanan and The Aloft  is now open adjacent to DPAC, the Durham Performing Arts Center.