Minor Hotels Signs San Gimignano Convent for 2027 Colbert Opening

Minor Hotels has signed the ExCelle Hotel San Gimignano, Colbert Collection, a 33-room conversion inside a former convent and prison in Tuscany, with opening scheduled for 2027. The deal gives the Bangkok-based operator its second Colbert Collection address in Italy and its third property open or signed under the soft brand across Europe.

The hotel will occupy the San Domenico Complex in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed centre of San Gimignano. Each of the 33 guestrooms will be built from an original convent cell. A restaurant and bar will complete the on-site offer.

Gonzalo Aguilar, CEO of Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, said the company wants to grow with character-led hotels in culturally relevant destinations. The signing extends a footprint that already counts 60 operating properties in Italy across seven brands: Anantara, Tivoli, NH Collection, nhow, Avani, Colbert Collection and NH Hotels.

What surrounds the hotel?

The hotel forms one part of a wider regeneration of the complex. Plans include:

• A theatre and opera arena with capacity above 1,000 people
• Additional restaurants and retail boutiques
• Meeting and event venues
• A museum

Hotel guests will have access to cultural and artistic programming across the entire site. Minor Hotels frames the property around the brand's three pillars: the art of place, the art of gathering and the art of taste.

Opera Laboratori, the Italian cultural heritage company founded in 1991, leads the regeneration. The group manages more than 86 museums, archaeological sites and places of worship, including the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Cathedral of Siena, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and the Galleria dell'Accademia. It employs about 1,000 people and runs ExCelle, the hospitality project that gives the hotel its name.

Beppe Costa, CEO of Opera Laboratori, described the project as a cultural regeneration effort for San Gimignano and the wider region. He said the aim is a destination where culture, creativity and hospitality meet.

Where does Colbert Collection stand?

The brand launched with Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze, which opened in Florence in May 2026. The WestDill Mayfair Hotel London is expected to follow in the first quarter of 2027. San Gimignano would then become the next addition to the lineup.

Colbert Collection is Minor Hotels' soft brand for independent properties, inspired by Parisian boulevard cafés. Each property keeps its own identity, with curated experiences linking guests to local people, stories and traditions.

For operators and investors, the signing signals continued appetite for adaptive reuse of heritage assets in secondary cultural destinations, where conversion costs trade against limited new-build supply in protected historic centres. The structure also shows a cultural operator, Opera Laboratori, taking the lead on regeneration while a hotel brand anchors the commercial mix.

With Florence open, London due in Q1 2027 and San Gimignano signed for 2027, Colbert Collection is on track to hold three hotels open or signed across two countries within a year. The next markers are the London opening next quarter and further signings under the soft brand as Minor Hotels extends its European conversion pipeline.