The new ‘un-chain’ hotels with a boutique buzz

HOTEL HOPPER JADE CONROY

TDEPUTY HOTELS EDITOR

here 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”. 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 MiddleEastern-restaurant-meets-pizzeria – live music, 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 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; sirhotels.com 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; palisociety.com

CHANGING ROOMS Room Mate, Milan, left; Ruby Marie Hotel in Vienna, right; and Experimental Hotel, Verbier, below