If you would like to visit southern Ontario (specifically somewhere outside of Toronto) and stay in a cool design-forward lifestyle hotel, what are your options? The obvious ones are the Drake Devonshire, The Royal Hotel, and Wander the Resort in Prince Edward County (~2.5 hours east of Toronto).
Looking north of Toronto, The Postmark Hotel in Newmarket is a nice boutique hotel. But I can't think of any others and there aren't any lifestyle hotels in Muskoka. That's cottage country.
Moving toward the west, Elora Mill is a popular hotel and destination (with very high ADRs), but I would not call it a design forward lifestyle hotel. It's traditional luxury. So that's roughly it. Your only other options are trendy motels, such as the Beach Motel in Southhampton.
Now let's look specifically at the Niagara Peninsula (where we have proposed a design-forward lifestyle hotel). The three most popular destinations are Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the Niagara Benchlands. And each year, this region receives over 13 million visitors, 30-40% of which are American.
But again, I would argue that there are exactly this many design-forward lifestyle hotels on the Peninsula: 0. The market is dominated by Vintage Hotels, which is not this.
But that's set to change next year. The Clayfield, which is part of Hyatt's Unbound Collection, is currently under construction across from Stratus Wines in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The design is by Sid Lee Architecture out of Montréal (which Globizen recently featured here) and, when it's complete, it will be a cool lifestyle hotel and likely a great success. It will be the first hotel to serve this glaring hotel supply gap in the market.
But this is only one hotel in what is Canada's largest and most important wine region. It's also a region with two Michelin-starred restaurants, countless recreational and cultural offerings, growing cycling tourism, and much more.
We need more of this kind of offering, which is why we have also proposed a design-forward lifestyle hotel on the water in the Niagara Benchlands. Today, we refer to the larger mixed-use development as Project Bench.
For those of you that are interested, the Bench is a separate wine appellation from NOTL. It has an elevated and sloped terrain and a longer growing season that is ideal for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling. But in the end, we view these two subregions as being entirely complimentary, akin to Sonoma and Napa in California (incidentally, they also share similar differences in terms of style, climate, geography, and terroir).
A rising tide lifts all boats.
And we are of the opinion that a lack of design-forward accommodations — with global appeal — is holding back the economic potential of this region. And so we're working as hard as we can to correct that. If this opportunity is also exciting to you, please do get in touch. We're always looking to collaborate.
You can also check us out here for more about the project.
Cover photo from Beaumier
Most global cities now have restrictions, and in some cases an effective ban, on short-term rentals. Here are some examples, along with their annual nightly rental cap as I understand them (and by this, I mean what ChatGPT is telling me):
Berlin: Secondary residence rentals are limited to 90 days per year
London: Annual cap of 90 nights
Mexico City: Annual cap of 180 nights
New York City: Only host-present stays allowed
Paris: Annual cap of 120 nights
Rio de Janeiro: Annual cap of 90 nights
San Francisco: Annual cap of 90 nights
Singapore: Minimum stay of 3 months for private properties and 6 months for HDB properties (Singapore's public housing authority)
Sydney: Annual cap of 180 nights
Toronto: Annual cap of 180 nights
These rules and caps will have nuances to them. Like if you want to rent your place on the third Tuesday of a month and your property faces west and has a view of an outdoor terrace with no more than 6 brass bistro tables, you probably require a special license. Okay, this isn't true. But broadly speaking, most cities now have strict caps in the range of 90-180 nights and differentiate between whole-home rentals and host-present stays.
What this, of course, means is that most big cities don't want people operating short-term rentals as a business. They'd like hosts to be people who maybe rent out their place while they're away on vacation and/or offer up an extra room when some conference or event is taking place in town. In other words, cities do not want short-term rentals to negatively impact their supply of long-term rentals.
The Monte Palace Hotel on São Miguel Island opened in 1989.
Perched up 500 or so meters above sea level, the hotel offered panoramic views of Lagoa das Sete Cidades. It had 88 rooms, two restaurants, a bar/nightclub, and a total construction area of approximately 13,104 m². Notably, it was the first luxury five-star hotel in the Azores. And in 1990 it was even awarded "Hotel of the Year" in Portugal.
Then, the place closed — just 18 months after its opening.
Today, it looks like this:
If you would like to visit southern Ontario (specifically somewhere outside of Toronto) and stay in a cool design-forward lifestyle hotel, what are your options? The obvious ones are the Drake Devonshire, The Royal Hotel, and Wander the Resort in Prince Edward County (~2.5 hours east of Toronto).
Looking north of Toronto, The Postmark Hotel in Newmarket is a nice boutique hotel. But I can't think of any others and there aren't any lifestyle hotels in Muskoka. That's cottage country.
Moving toward the west, Elora Mill is a popular hotel and destination (with very high ADRs), but I would not call it a design forward lifestyle hotel. It's traditional luxury. So that's roughly it. Your only other options are trendy motels, such as the Beach Motel in Southhampton.
Now let's look specifically at the Niagara Peninsula (where we have proposed a design-forward lifestyle hotel). The three most popular destinations are Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the Niagara Benchlands. And each year, this region receives over 13 million visitors, 30-40% of which are American.
But again, I would argue that there are exactly this many design-forward lifestyle hotels on the Peninsula: 0. The market is dominated by Vintage Hotels, which is not this.
But that's set to change next year. The Clayfield, which is part of Hyatt's Unbound Collection, is currently under construction across from Stratus Wines in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The design is by Sid Lee Architecture out of Montréal (which Globizen recently featured here) and, when it's complete, it will be a cool lifestyle hotel and likely a great success. It will be the first hotel to serve this glaring hotel supply gap in the market.
But this is only one hotel in what is Canada's largest and most important wine region. It's also a region with two Michelin-starred restaurants, countless recreational and cultural offerings, growing cycling tourism, and much more.
We need more of this kind of offering, which is why we have also proposed a design-forward lifestyle hotel on the water in the Niagara Benchlands. Today, we refer to the larger mixed-use development as Project Bench.
For those of you that are interested, the Bench is a separate wine appellation from NOTL. It has an elevated and sloped terrain and a longer growing season that is ideal for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling. But in the end, we view these two subregions as being entirely complimentary, akin to Sonoma and Napa in California (incidentally, they also share similar differences in terms of style, climate, geography, and terroir).
A rising tide lifts all boats.
And we are of the opinion that a lack of design-forward accommodations — with global appeal — is holding back the economic potential of this region. And so we're working as hard as we can to correct that. If this opportunity is also exciting to you, please do get in touch. We're always looking to collaborate.
You can also check us out here for more about the project.
Cover photo from Beaumier
Most global cities now have restrictions, and in some cases an effective ban, on short-term rentals. Here are some examples, along with their annual nightly rental cap as I understand them (and by this, I mean what ChatGPT is telling me):
Berlin: Secondary residence rentals are limited to 90 days per year
London: Annual cap of 90 nights
Mexico City: Annual cap of 180 nights
New York City: Only host-present stays allowed
Paris: Annual cap of 120 nights
Rio de Janeiro: Annual cap of 90 nights
San Francisco: Annual cap of 90 nights
Singapore: Minimum stay of 3 months for private properties and 6 months for HDB properties (Singapore's public housing authority)
Sydney: Annual cap of 180 nights
Toronto: Annual cap of 180 nights
These rules and caps will have nuances to them. Like if you want to rent your place on the third Tuesday of a month and your property faces west and has a view of an outdoor terrace with no more than 6 brass bistro tables, you probably require a special license. Okay, this isn't true. But broadly speaking, most cities now have strict caps in the range of 90-180 nights and differentiate between whole-home rentals and host-present stays.
What this, of course, means is that most big cities don't want people operating short-term rentals as a business. They'd like hosts to be people who maybe rent out their place while they're away on vacation and/or offer up an extra room when some conference or event is taking place in town. In other words, cities do not want short-term rentals to negatively impact their supply of long-term rentals.
The Monte Palace Hotel on São Miguel Island opened in 1989.
Perched up 500 or so meters above sea level, the hotel offered panoramic views of Lagoa das Sete Cidades. It had 88 rooms, two restaurants, a bar/nightclub, and a total construction area of approximately 13,104 m². Notably, it was the first luxury five-star hotel in the Azores. And in 1990 it was even awarded "Hotel of the Year" in Portugal.
Then, the place closed — just 18 months after its opening.
Today, it looks like this:
Globally, the aparthotel segment is expected to be the fastest-growing subset in commercial lodging for the remainder of this decade. And that makes sense. With STR regulations only becoming more stringent and with the continued rise of digital nomadism, the demand for this kind of apartment-like product is going to need to be satisfied in other ways.
There's clearly a market for kitchens, washing machines, and a bit more space.
Cover photo by Aquilion Property on Unsplash
Supposedly the hotel failed for a number reasons. It was hard to get to. It lacked on-site amenities. It didn't, for example, have a pool. And the unpredictable (and often foggy) weather of the Azores made it so that a lot of the time you couldn't even see the main attraction, which was the view. The sponsors may have also overshot the market at the time.
In 2017, the abandoned property was finally listed for sale at €1.5 million. Level Constellation ended up buying it for an undisclosed amount at the end of the year. They are a Lisbon-based developer founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. The plan was/is to reopen another 5-star hotel, but that hasn't happened yet. Though there's certainly no lack of visitors to the property today!
I don't know how you address the weather thing, but nowadays there are many other 5-star hotels on the archipelago. Regardless, my bet is that the existing structure will end up being demolished. I mean, it's been abandoned and unmaintained for about 35 years.
Globally, the aparthotel segment is expected to be the fastest-growing subset in commercial lodging for the remainder of this decade. And that makes sense. With STR regulations only becoming more stringent and with the continued rise of digital nomadism, the demand for this kind of apartment-like product is going to need to be satisfied in other ways.
There's clearly a market for kitchens, washing machines, and a bit more space.
Cover photo by Aquilion Property on Unsplash
Supposedly the hotel failed for a number reasons. It was hard to get to. It lacked on-site amenities. It didn't, for example, have a pool. And the unpredictable (and often foggy) weather of the Azores made it so that a lot of the time you couldn't even see the main attraction, which was the view. The sponsors may have also overshot the market at the time.
In 2017, the abandoned property was finally listed for sale at €1.5 million. Level Constellation ended up buying it for an undisclosed amount at the end of the year. They are a Lisbon-based developer founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. The plan was/is to reopen another 5-star hotel, but that hasn't happened yet. Though there's certainly no lack of visitors to the property today!
I don't know how you address the weather thing, but nowadays there are many other 5-star hotels on the archipelago. Regardless, my bet is that the existing structure will end up being demolished. I mean, it's been abandoned and unmaintained for about 35 years.
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