Live the Experience
A unique boutique hotel brand founded twenty years ago, Room Mate Hotels is the perfect hotel stay for the creatively curious who are seeking more than just a place to sleep. Driven by the vision of Executive President and Founder Kike Sarasola, the company designs hotels with the ambition of bringing back the magic of travel. Here, RLI got the chance to chat with Kike on all things Room Mate related.
“We are your friends in the city,” highlights Sarasola as soon as we ask him about Room Mate Hotels. It is this principle that stays with the business day in and day out through every opening and every new challenge that awaits the company.
This stems from the founder’s idea that the best way to experience a city is by visiting friends who live there. It is because of this that each hotel within the portfolio is named after that of a fictional friend, has its own distinct personality and character and features unique design concepts brought to life by exceptional interior designers from around the world.
Room Mate Hotels believe people should be able to stay in places that embrace originality and celebrate individuality, places that are not just in the city, but very much part of its soul.
The brand currently operates 33 existing hotels across 15 different cities in Europe including such world-class locations as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Florence, Geneva, London, Madrid, Milan, Rome, San Sebastian and Venice. Within the portfolio, 23 are under the Room Mate umbrella, whilst the remaining ten are part of the recently acquired Staying Valencia Hotels Group. These ten hotels include the award-winning Helen Berger, as well as Oliveira Rooms and the Cosmo Hotel Boutique, which are already part of the Room Mate Hotels portfolio. The remaining seven are situated in Valencia and are currently being rebranded into Room Mate Hotels.
Meanwhile in February this year, they also purchased their first hotel in Switzerland, the Marmont Hotel in Geneva, which they are renovating and relaunching as a Room Mate in April next year.
Their expansion into Geneva marks a major milestone in their growth strategy, as they continue to add sites in prime locations. The Geneva property is in one of the most exclusive areas of the city, just off the prestigious Rue du Rhône and only a few hundred yards from Geneva’s lakefront.
“Our expansion strategy is very focused on what our guests value most, top-tier urban destinations and exceptional locations within those cities,” explains Kike Sarasola, Executive President and Founder of Room Mate Hotels. “Geographically, we are concentrating on growing in major European capitals. Cities like Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Prague, Lisbon and Copenhagen are now priority locations for us.”
Over the years, there has been an increasing importance placed on e-commerce and the many social media channels, on top of this there is now the emerging mainstream use of AI. However, Sarasola feels this evolution of AI is not a threat and instead it must be viewed as an advantage. He sees it as a benefit and a way of allowing his staff more time to spend with clients and hotel guests as repetitive work and mundane tasks can be performed by AI, freeing up staff members to be more courteous and giving of their time to clients.
As our topic of conversation moves onto sustainability, it quickly becomes apparent that the business excels in this area, having already implemented such initiatives as recycled uniforms to conservation of water.
“In the world today, sustainability is such an important topic and it is one we have been playing our part in for a long time and will continue to do so moving forward, as we look to find and utilise new ways of making the company more sustainable and planet-friendly.”
Authenticity is a key word that the founder uses throughout our time with him, none more so than when we speak about how to keep and maintain customers in such a competitive sector. “My people and my brand, we are authentic to everyone who steps through our doors. We never lie or hide anything and I think that is something you can feel and see inside all of our properties. I think our high occupancy rates are a testament to this. Alongside this, we treat our staff the same way and this has led to a happy workforce and when your staff is happy and enjoying their work, the customer can see and sense this,” Sarasola highlights.
As the company continues to expand and look for more properties, the biggest challenge this creates is finding the right spaces, for the right prices, in expensive city centre locations. Whilst Europe is their immediate priority, the US is a market they are beginning to look at and could be an exciting addition to their portfolio in the future.
“Our industry is one that is constantly moving and evolving with customers who know exactly what they want and will not settle for anything less. Over the coming years, I feel we need to listen to our clients more than ever, making sure we deliver exactly what they want and that is precisely what we will continue to do at Room Mate Hotels,” concludes Sarasola.
