Pop Up Goes the Luxe Hotel

 

the popup hotel

A Pop-Up Hotel site

During a muddy, rainy night in June 2010 at a campsite near the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Robert Breare was on a 20-minute trek to the toilets when he had an epiphany. "I was worried about getting back to camp and finding that someone had stolen half my things," says the English hotelier. "I thought, 'What could be better?' "

When Mr. Breare returned to Surrey, he began working with his partners on a temporary hotel that could pop up for major events. Now, his company, Snoozebox, is just one of the upstarts offering luxury short-term accommodations at seasonal hot spots. Though they differ in style and motivation, they all have one thing in common: They don't stick around for long.

Snoozebox Limited

Snoozebox at the U.K.'s Silverstone Circuit

The décor at the glamorous camping (glamping) spots created by the Somerset, England-based Pop Up Hotel in the rural countryside differs based on the environment and event. "Some people want to go to the Cayman [Islands] and stay in luxury hotels, but that hotel could be anywhere in the world," says managing director Mark Sorrill. "I set out to make an inclusive hotel, one that absorbs the local environment, culture, flora, fauna and architectural style, and thereby allow the guests to have a holiday experience that connects to a place."

At last year's Glastonbury music festival, Pop Up Hotel campers were greeted with a firepit at reception and staff in black-cocktail attire. "When they showed us inside tents, we couldn't believe it," says Graham Gunn, a retired financial planner from Wales, who paid about £1,000 for five nights in one of the canvas tents with his wife Carol. "We came back at 1 a.m. from the [festival] site, covered in mud, to luxuryland. There were lights leading up to the tents; it just looked like a fairy tale."

At next weekend's CarFest, Pop Up Hotel guests will be able to show off their classic cars along a boulevard that leads to a restaurant serving organic meat from the event site, Laverstoke Park Farm. With drinks in hand, guests can mingle and talk cars just yards from the festival entrance. "I want people to be able to smell the racing fuel and hear the cars in the distance," says Mr. Sorrill.

Claus Sendlinger, chief executive of Berlin-based Design Hotels, drew on his experience organizing one-night raves and his staff's background in pop-up shops and restaurants to put together the company's first temporary project in Tulum, Mexico. Mr. Sendlinger says he wanted to develop the Papaya Playa project into a luxury destination without turning the area—known as a beachfront backpacker hangout—into a generic resort. While working on longer-term plans, he decided to use the 85 existing cabanas to create a six-month pop-up that opened last December.

Design Hotels

Design Hotels's pop-up in Mexico.

Design Hotels is now operating another temporary project next to a popular nightclub in Mykonos, Greece, until October. Many of the same guests who stayed at Papaya Playa have booked rooms, says Mr. Sendlinger. Next month, the company will turn part of the Tulum property into a six-week ashram, complete with a temple-style design, meditation courses and energy healing. Rooms from $312 (£199) a night. "It's for so many people interested in checking out an ashram, but not the Julia Roberts-style of cleaning bathrooms," says Mr. Sendlinger, referencing the movie "Eat Pray Love."

The pop-up concept makes sense for hoteliers in today's capital-constrained times, says Patrick Mayock, editor in chief of HotelNewsNow.com. "The challenge for developers now is: Do I take the risk and build a hotel for two years when demand might not be there?" he says. Pop-up properties provide an alternative. Set up and dismantled in a matter of days, they can provide accommodations during peak seasons without sinking costs into a location's off-season months.

While operators of pop-ups aren't constrained by the time-consuming regulation processes of normal real-estate development, the details involved with handling power, plumbing and even staffing can be a challenge. "I thought coming from conventional development it would be a walk in the park, but it is the opposite," says Mr. Sorrill.

Still, many are already thinking about expansion. Snoozebox is looking at new locations throughout Europe, and Mr. Breare says he has had interest from Brazil, India and Russia. The company is launching a second division to handle requests from government agencies in disaster areas or war zones. Mr. Sorrill, of Pop Up Hotel, says he plans to expand into the Caribbean next year, where the winter high season corresponds with England's off-peak months. "Ultimately, we would like to operate pop-ups year-round," he says. He is also looking into putting up projects in urban tourist environments. "It needs to be in special places—perhaps a forgotten Roman temple that allows people access for a few weeks of the year," he says.

That sort of novelty appeals to younger consumers, who might otherwise look for hotel alternatives such as hostels and campsites, says Karen Friebe, a partner and head of Hospitality & Leisure in Europe and Asia at the law firm DLA Piper UK. "People are looking for new experiences. They want to try something different," she says, and with a pop-up hotel, each stay is unique. Still, Ms. Friebe points out, to be successful, properties must have top-notch amenities. "Who is going to want to stay in an uncomfortable freight container just for the experience? It must have fantastic sheets and a great TV screen," she says.

When David Wilson walked into the Snoozebox container room where he would be staying for five days during an English motor show in June, he says he was impressed by what he found. With rooms starting at £169 a night, "even the loo paper was good quality," says Mr. Wilson, who manages the Bill Shepherd Mustang car dealership in Byfleet, England. "I always notice the toilet paper in a hotel—that is how you can tell if it is good."

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443537404577581174203522682.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews