Page 79 - SHARP September 2022

HIDDEN GEMS
GRUPO HABITA IS PAVING THE WAY FOR LIFESTYLE HOTELS IN LATIN AMERICA
T HE STORY OF GRUPO HABITA BEGAN, AS MANY STORIES DO, with college friends. At the turn of the millennium, Carlos Couturier, alongside Moisés Micha and his brothers Rafael and Jaime, decided to venture into Mexico’s burgeoning hospitality industry. The group had no experience in the field — Moisés and Carlos had come out of the real estate world — but they did have a strong sense of creative direction. In the year 2000, Mexico didn’t yet have a market for what are now known as lifestyle hotels. Grupo Habita intended to break ground and prove that the country did, in fact, have an appetite for design-oriented, service-heavy lodgings. When its first property, Habita Hotel, was launched to acclaim that same year, the group’s bet paid off — and Mexico City became home to
Latin America’s first lifestyle hotel.
The lifestyle hotel is a kind of evolution of the boutique hotel: intimate and on the smaller side, yet paired with a sharp, modernist edge. But whereas the boutique hotel was typically singular and exclusive, lifestyle hotels are meant to be more accessible and more common. Within these hotels, there tends to be an emphasis on personalized, totalizing experiences, usually brought about through a selection of luxurious amenities: think classy cuisine or eccentric spas. Grupo Habita’s spin on this idea of immersion is related to the Spanish concept of vecindad, which translates to something like “neighbourhood.” For Grupo Habita, the idea is that the hotels are neighbourhoods in themselves — community-forming destinations with a heavy sense of place and wholeness.
Vecindad seems to be an effective driving force for a lifestyle hotel. Over the past 22 years, Grupo Habita has replicated these place- and style-heavy accommodations across Mexico and beyond. Among the group’s 15 hotels are several in Mexico City, with other locations in Monterrey and Guadalajara. Beyond these obvious tourist destinations are more interesting choices: Puebla, La Paz, Puerto Escondido, even over the border in Chicago. Though the hotel’s no longer associated with the group, their 2001 launch of Deseo in Playa del Carmen was seen as instrumental in growing the city’s tourism and hospitality industry. Today, Playa is one of Mexico’s fastest-growing destination spots for vacationers and expats.
Part of what makes Grupo Habita’s recipe successful again and
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