Not Your Average Hostels
Feb 23, 2013 11:19:09 GMT
Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 23, 2013 11:19:09 GMT
Article in NY Times Travel Section. (Subscription may be required to read.)
"February 22, 2013
This Is a Hostel?
By CHRISTINE AJUDUA
Grupo Habita, the Mexico City-based team behind the upscale Hôtel Americano in New York, is known for taking an unconventional approach to hospitality. Still, its latest property — Downtown Mexico, a hotel within a 17th-century palace in the Centro Histórico district of Mexico City — houses a bit of a surprise: the company’s first hostel, Downtown Beds.
Downtown Beds, occupies the palace’s former service quarters. “The space had the bones for a youthful project,” said Carlos Couturier, managing partner at Grupo Habita, which created an upscale hotel at the opposite end of the building. “But there was an intimate patio and a rooftop that could be transformed into something cool.” The local architecture firm Cherem Serrano kept the original Catalan vaulted ceilings, painted the wooden floors white and installed up to eight bespoke lattice-brick bunks in each room, as well as en-suite bathrooms with rain showers. The patio is now a “chela” garden (that’s slang for beer) and the rooftop has a swimming pool and bar that draws a steady stream of locals. There’s also a kitchen serving Mexican street snacks, a screening room, table tennis, foosball and free use of bikes."
"]http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/travel/not-your-average-hostels.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20130223&_r=0]
Not my idea of a good value
: Don Cuevas
(This post is pending moderation approval on LP TT Mexico Branch. Yawn.)
"February 22, 2013
This Is a Hostel?
By CHRISTINE AJUDUA
Grupo Habita, the Mexico City-based team behind the upscale Hôtel Americano in New York, is known for taking an unconventional approach to hospitality. Still, its latest property — Downtown Mexico, a hotel within a 17th-century palace in the Centro Histórico district of Mexico City — houses a bit of a surprise: the company’s first hostel, Downtown Beds.
Downtown Beds, occupies the palace’s former service quarters. “The space had the bones for a youthful project,” said Carlos Couturier, managing partner at Grupo Habita, which created an upscale hotel at the opposite end of the building. “But there was an intimate patio and a rooftop that could be transformed into something cool.” The local architecture firm Cherem Serrano kept the original Catalan vaulted ceilings, painted the wooden floors white and installed up to eight bespoke lattice-brick bunks in each room, as well as en-suite bathrooms with rain showers. The patio is now a “chela” garden (that’s slang for beer) and the rooftop has a swimming pool and bar that draws a steady stream of locals. There’s also a kitchen serving Mexican street snacks, a screening room, table tennis, foosball and free use of bikes."
"]http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/travel/not-your-average-hostels.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20130223&_r=0]
Not my idea of a good value
: Don Cuevas(This post is pending moderation approval on LP TT Mexico Branch. Yawn.)