A millennial-oriented hotel where travelers can share rooms, a kitchen and common space will open on the eastern edge of town in November.
Found Hotel Santa Monica will open at 12311 Santa Monica Blvd., just outside of city limits.
Co-creator Ross Walker said the hotel is meant to appeal to the budget-friendly traveler who appreciates thoughtful, pared-down design and amenities that facilitate meeting other travelers. The hotel will contain 14 shared and 74 private rooms, all with their own bathrooms.
“We’re giving you a prime, central location in a major city at an affordable price,” Walker said. “We want you to save money on your room so you can spend more on experiencing the city.”
Santa Monica will be the chain’s sixth location after Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. Walker said he saw a lack of inexpensive, modern hotels in the area.
“It’s built for millennials who want an affordable experience, and there aren’t a lot of hotels like that in Santa Monica,” he said. “It’s a modern version of a hostel that’s clean, well-lit and stylish, and you’ll actually like sleeping in the bunk beds.”
The hotel will include a restaurant, bar, lounge and patio terrace for socializing. It will also incorporate a communal kitchen, workspace and small gym.
“It’s really about social interaction,” Walker said. “It’s a totally different hotel than what is offered today in Los Angeles or across the country, and we think that will be highly attractive for millennial travelers in the area.”
Walker said the company installed a new facade and adjusted the layout of the former vacant senior living facility to create communal space, but kept the building’s floorplan relatively unchanged.
Found had to make structural improvements to the dilapidated building to bring it up to code, he added.
“We always do an adaptive reuse of the buildings we go into,” he said. “We’re not building cookie-cutter hotels from the ground up.”
A mile away on Santa Monica Boulevard, the mid-range Gateway Hotel will also undergo extensive exterior and interior renovations soon and a restaurant called Socalo from Border Grill chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken will open on the ground floor.
madeleine@smdp.com
