Skift Take
An emerging lifestlye motel segment is developing for consumers seeking vintage style, indie personality, low rates and close connection to the community.
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The sign on the building facade overlooking the palm tree-lined pool and pool bar says “Vagabond Motel,” but the name online reads “The Vagabond Hotel.”
So why is that? Originally built in 1953, the newly reopened Vagabond property on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami is most definitely a retro motel with everything that defines a motel. There's the typical two-story, low-rise building with connected wraparound balconies, doors with direct outside access, and the quintessential little motel office below the last room at the end of the building.
Owner Avra Jain says, while she would prefer to call the Vagabond a motel as it should be, she’s not about to fight Google search. To compete well online, the property is positioned as a “boutique lifestyle hotel” to rank alongside the Curio and Canopy flags of the world. However, the vintage motel design and guest experience are the primary differentiators for the property in the Miami market.
Wallpaper, for example, is featuring half a dozen hotels in the next version of its incisive Miami city guide, and Vagabond is one of them.
Biscayne Boulevard is lined with over a dozen of these mid-century motels with groovy neon “googie” signs and protected historical status, although only a few are undergoing restoration. And it's not just Miami. There’s a growing hospitality niche here expanding across the country for people enamored with the playful 1950s design, low room rates, close community connection and classic road movie vibe.
Alex Chang, the 25-year-old head chef at the Jetsons-inspired Vagabond Restaurant, is the hottest chef in town right now. Over 75% of the restaurant clientele is local, and during the StartUp Miami tech event on Monday, celebrity chef Tom Colicchio gave a shout out to the city’s two best chefs, Michelle Bernstein and Michael Chafetz, and Chang.
The original architect of the Vagabond, Robert Swartburg, also designed the industry-disrupting Delano on South Beach. The Vagabond's updated rooms are fun, fresh and funky without any overly cloying nostalgia,
