Hotel News

Dream Hotel brand enters Texas with cool new boutique hotel in Frisco

Coming to Frisco in 2026.

Courtesy rendering

Frisco is getting a new boutique hotel from a brand that's new to Texas: Called Dream Frisco, it's from New York-based Dream Hotel Group and will open as part of Firefly Park, a 230-acre mixed-use development at 8000 McKinney Rd., at the nexus of US Highway 380 and the Dallas North Tollway, that will also include offices, retail, homes, and restaurants.

Dream Hotel Group is a hotel brand and management company founded by Sant Singh Chatwal, also a restaurateur who built businesses in Ethiopia and Canada before coming to New York in 1981. The company's hotel brands include Dream Hotels, Time Hotels, The Chatwal, and Unscripted Hotels.

They currently have 15 hotels and 25 more in development, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Bangkok, and Nashville.

Dream Frisco will include:

200 rooms
rooftop pool deck and bar
state-of-the-art fitness center
four food and beverage offerings, including a signature restaurant, nightclub, social club, and lobby bar

Dream Hotel Group CEO Jay Stein says in a statement that Frisco is the ideal destination to expand the Dream brand as it's one of the fastest-growing markets in Texas.

"We are fortunate to collaborate with visionary developers like Wilks Development who share our same big dreams and bold ambitions to grow and develop our brand in new and emerging markets across the country," Stein says. "Firefly Park is the future of North Dallas, and we are thrilled to be a part of it."

Firefly Park is the latest name for a development that has previously been called The Oxbow at Frisco and also Frisco North. But Firefly Park sounds much cooler, yes?

A release says it will be nestled among 230 acres of untouched Texas countryside into which they will plunk 4.75 million square feet of commercial office space, 2,200 luxury residential mid- and high-rise units, townhomes, food & beverage offerings, 380,000 square feet of retail space, a planned music hall, and outdoor amphitheater. Farewell, untouched Texas countryside!

Public spaces will include a creek park and nature preserve with hike-and-bike trails, multiple ponds and water features, and state-of-the-art playground facilities.

Many involved with this find it to be "cool":

Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney says: "When we started thinking about what the northern part of Frisco was going to look like, we knew it needed to be a different experience from the southern part of our city. Now, with the announcement of the Dream Hotel coming to Firefly Park, it adds a significantly different, cool vibe to Frisco."
Lynn Dowdle, president of Dowdle Real Estate, who connected Dream Hotel Group with Wilks Development, says: "Dream Frisco will offer up a sophisticated-cool factor like no other."

So so cool.

Dream Frisco follows recent signings of Dream Miami, Dream Louisville, Dream Oklahoma City, and Unscripted Oklahoma City, making Dream Frisco the fifth new hotel deal signed by Dream Hotel Group in less than five months.

In any case, it's still a long way off. Firefly Park isn't even scheduled to break ground until 2023. Dream Frisco, the hospitality centerpiece of the new development, will open its doors in 2026. Anything could happen. But today, today, all is bright optimism.

vacation

Sticker shock

Southwest Airlines hikes checked-bag fees amid higher jet fuel costs

Southwest Airlines

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Southwest Airlines is raising checked baggage fees by $10, less than a year after ending its “bags fly free” perk that long set it apart, as jet fuel costs have jumped since the start of the Iran war.

Customers checking one bag will pay $45 starting on Thursday, April 9, while a second will now cost $55, according to Southwest. Some travelers will still receive a free first checked bag, including certain loyalty-tier members, eligible co-branded credit card holders and active-duty military members.

The move was made “as part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop,” the Dallas-based carrier said in a statement.

Southwest ended its generous, decades-old policy of allowing passengers to check two bags for free in May 2025, a move that marked a major shift for the carrier after years of marketing the perk as a key differentiator.

The airline now joins a growing list of U.S. carriers that have increased fees since the war in the Middle East began February 28, sending oil prices swinging as fighting near the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global supplies. Threats to the narrow waterway, where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes, have pushed up prices for jet fuel, which are refined from crude.

Delta Air Lines' higher baggage fees took effect Wednesday. JetBlue and United Airlines also raised their bag fees last week.

Oil prices on Wednesday were plunging toward $95 per barrel after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran just before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf. But prices remain well above pre-war levels amid ongoing risks that the conflict could continue.

Adding to the uncertainty, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, casting doubt on whether the fragile ceasefire will hold.

The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York was $4.81 on Tuesday, up from $2.50 the day before the war started, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks average prices across those major hubs.

Outside of the U.S., a number of carriers are responding by adding or increasing fuel surcharges, a tool that U.S. airlines don't typically rely on.

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