The ‘un-chain’ hotels with a boutique buzz that you need to know about
There are some exciting new players challenging the status quo of the traditional hotel group: introducing the “un-chains”. These small groups are usually lesser known and have a boutique sensibility – they’re not into cookie-cutter design or reward points. They’re also fairly priced. One of the first brands of this kind in recent memory was Ace Hotels, which transformed the mid-range arena: the hotels are located in up-and-coming neighbourhoods and often have a big draw for locals, be it a florist, a nightclub or a hot-ticket restaurant.
Here, I round up the independent hotel groups creating the next buzz of excitement, from the home-grown brands expanding outside their city or country to those that are changing the way we look at the word “budget”.
MOB
Only Cyril Aouizerate, founder of French hotel group Mob, would have the audacity to open a hotel in Bordeaux which doesn’t focus on wine: “F--- the wine! I want to have the best place in the city for beer.” Aouizerate doesn’t like to pigeonhole. His “open to all” mantra has resulted in hotels in Lyon and Paris that also feel, in part, like centres of the community. The latter property is located in Les Puces, an area popular with furniture hunters, owing to its weekend flea market. There’s a garden with a vegetable patch – which serves the neighbours, as well as the Middle-Eastern-restaurant-meets-pizzeria – live music, an outdoor cinema, pop-up shop and a fashion school. They’re opening another property, designed by Philippe Starck, around the corner in 2020, with a pool, spa and student accommodation. Openings are planned for Lisbon, Los Angeles and Washington DC. A place in the forest outside Paris and a beach spot in the South of France are also on Aouizerate’s wishlist.
Rooms from €99 (£89); mobhotel.com
Sir Hotels
“I don’t like having so much as the same lamp in two different hotels,” says Liran Wizman, founder of Sir Hotels. It began in Amsterdam with Sir Albert, in a former diamond factory, and followed with Sir Adam, in the Seventies-era A’dam tower, home to the city’s highest club. There are also outposts in Berlin’s Charlottenburg (another is planned for West Berlin), Hamburg’s waterfront, and Ibiza, overlooking Dalt Vila. Each hotel has its own “Explore” programme, which might involve, for example, experiencing a cookery class with the chef behind Ibiza’s coolest supper club. Sir Victor, near Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia, follows next year, taking over the former Hotel Omm. The “resort” will have two pools, a spa and a bar, which is being built into one of the floors of the former car park.
Rooms from €139 (£125); sirhotels.com
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Experimental Group
This Parisian company disrupted the cocktail scene in Paris with its speakeasy-style bars, and followed in London, New York and Ibiza. Their foray into hotels, in Paris and London, is more recent but no less successful. Designer Dorothée Meilichzon has created a kitsch and very in-vogue style: geometric prints, sculptural headboards, and pink parlour-esque bathrooms. Cocktails, of course, play a part, even in rooms (minibars contain pre-mixed concoctions). This month, the group opens a hotel in Verbier and has taken over the Farm Club, an après-ski institution. Venice, in the Adriatica Societa di Navigazione building, and a heritage property in Menorca follow next summer.
Rooms from €160 (£144); experimentalgroup.com
Palisociety
Palisociety, a family-run group born in Los Angeles (where it has three properties) prides itself on being comfortable, irreverent and “neighbourhood oriented”. Its first outpost outside LA opened last month in Seattle in a building that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Owner Avi Brosh says he’s always looking for buildings with “interesting stories” – so expect openings in a Forties art deco building in Miami Beach and a traditional apartment block in San Francisco. Each will have the brand’s sprinkling of all-American collegiate style – monograms, stripes and memorable colourways. It’s not turning its back on the alma mater either – there are a further three hotels opening next year in up-and-coming Culver City, Westwood Village (where UCLA is located), and hip Silver Lake.
Rooms from $167 (£132); palisociety.com
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Ruby Hotels
The CEO of Ruby Hotels, Michael Struck, prefers to use the term “lean luxury” instead of “budget” when referring to his young hotel group, which began in Vienna and has since opened in Munich, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. What that means for guests is doing away with “outdated” concepts (like a reception desk) and leaving them with what they really need: iPad check-in; ergonomically designed bedrooms; and no restaurant, just a locally sourced breakfast spread. There’s even an in-house radio station. The most important factors, says Struck, are location and price. Forthcoming openings include London’s Southbank (autumn 2019) and Shanghai (2020).
Rooms from €69 (£62); ruby-hotels.com
Room Mate
This Spanish group has been slowly rising to fame, and, although it’s the largest on this list – it has 24 hotels, with 11 opening in 2019 – it deserves attention owing to its commitment to design, showing that big does not always mean boring. Room Mate Giulia in Milan, for example, was designed by interior designer/architect Patricia Urquiola. Styled on a Sixties Milanese apartment, it features custom-made furniture by Cassina, where Urquiola is creative director, mixed in with design-forward brands. The fact that it’s an hour away from another (separately owned) Urquiola-designed hotel, Il Sereno on Lake Como – where entry-level rooms cost €750 a night – puts Room Mate’s good work into context. Properties on London’s Southbank, and in Shanghai, Naples and Mallorca, are all planned.
Rooms from €199 (£179) a night; room-matehotels.com
