This summer has seen a surge in the highest end of luxury across the world. Some of it is about revenge travel and increased global mobility: A lot of the Middle Eastern market parked closer to home in Covid and are now shipping their Bugattis to the streets of London and other haunts in Europe. The palaces of Paris, the best hotels in Europe, and five-stars in the U.S. did brisk business at eye-watering rates.
Emerging Boutique Hotel Brand Casetta Tests Next-Gen Storytelling
25.08.2023 - 14:07 / skift.com / Leslie Barrie
When guests drive up to Marina Riviera, a boutique hotel in Big Bear, California that opened in the autumn of 2022, they won’t see a big sign for Casetta, the parent company that founded the hotel portfolio in 2019. Nor will they see its Casetta floral logo splashed on every corner of the lobby (look closely on the bath products and robes, though, and you’ll find it).
Unlike some other boutique hotel groups, whether that’s Roseate or Pillows, that want to make their brand known immediately, Casetta, which focuses on adaptive reuse projects, takes a deliberately lighter touch.
“That’s what sets us apart,” said Carolyn Schneider, co-founder of Casetta. “We of course want our guests to love all our hotels, but we don’t want them to have the same feeling like they’re going to a Starbucks every time.”
Schneider instead is hoping that guests appreciate each of their properties’ individual character, whether it’s Casa Cody in Palm Springs, California; The Pearl in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego; Marina Riviera in Big Bear, as well as their two new properties opening at the end of summer 2023: Hotel Lucile in Silver Lake and Hotel Willa in Taos, New Mexico. The brand will also open another Casetta hotel in Hudson, New York in 2024. Future projects might be in countries like Spain and Portugal.
So far, the Casetta hotels have been resonating — Casa Cody was just named one of Fodor’s best hotels in the U.S. in 2023 . Schneider has won ’s Up-and-Coming Hotelier of the Year in 2021, and she is now hoping to open a dozen hotels under the Casetta name.
Whether guests will develop a loyalty to the Casetta brand as a whole, though, remains to be seen.
Casetta means little house or lodge in Italian, and the brand, at its core, renovates small hotels, motels and lodges.
“We’re looking for special buildings that have history or great bones and have been underutilized and that are in great locations,” said Schneider. “We want charm and intrigue.”
The Pearl, for example, was used as a mid-century sportsman’s lodge, while Hotel Lucile is housed in an old church built in 1931.
Casetta looks for structures with a story to tell, considering storytelling is currently a key driving force behind bookings, especially with millennials and Gen Z.
Casa Cody, as another example, was originally founded by a pioneer woman named Harriet Cody in the 1920s, and is the oldest operating hotel in Palm Springs. The property’s store sells vintage Casa Cody postcards.
It’s not that the Casetta brand is non-existent. You’ll see its floral logo on things like reusable water bottles (in partnership with Ocean Bottle), and guests are encouraged to check out the brand’s other properties. But right now its approach is to let each
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