Tips From Philly’s Premiere Invisible Concierge Boutique Hotel
There’s a chance that you are looking for your first place or maybe you’re ready to part ways with your roommates (all good/bad things must come to an end), but, those dreams of that large one bedroom apartment isn’t a reality. Nevertheless, you’ve come to grips with living in a studio until the market opens back up.
Maximizing tight quarters is a hard concept for many of us, so we turned to the master of functional space Chad Ludeman of Lokal hotel for some advice.
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MSP: What inspired you to create an invisible concierge concept apartment style hotel?
Chad of Lokal: Honestly at first it was to make the business model of tiny, upscale, apartment hotels without any F&B work financially. There is not enough physical space or monetary budget for a full time front desk staff in our current model. Once we committed to that, we were able to curate a guest experience around that model by diving deep into everything and anything that might come up during a guest’s stay.
MSP: What’s your number tip for crafting a warm/inviting space, when square footage is limited?
Chad of Lokal: It’s tough to narrow down to one tip but I’ll take a stab at keeping things fairly minimal and organized while injecting texture anywhere you can. In our spaces we have to keep things open and organized so the guests can find everything they need easily. We inject texture in rugs, curtains, lots of real wood, plaster walls in Old City and always a few plants.
MSP: Why do you find it important to work with local brands and artisans when outfitting Lokal spaces?
Chad Of Lokal: We are devout urbanists and supporters of the small and local business economy. We always have been and it was a core tenant of our previous real estate business as well. We want to keep as much money in the local economy while supporting creative, small businesses and this is a great way to do that. On top of that, we named the hotel Lokal to signify that each location would have a hyper local focus not just to it’s city or town but to the neighborhood it was located in. Each spot has it’s own unique look and feel that matches the vibe of the surrounding neighborhood and uses as many local makers and artists as possible. Now that we have been in hospitality a few years we realize that terms like “authentic” and “local” are overused, but those were legitimate guiding principles when we founded this new business.
