Skift Take
Locally curated retail provides hotel brands with an opportunity to continuously evolve and stay current within a neighborhood, all while deepening their connection among guests and the local community.
In the lean toward local, luxury and lifestyle hotels are adding small retail spaces that serve as a tasting menu of regional designers and products. The strategy allows guests to sample the local zeitgeist and take a piece of it home with them.
Bunkhouse Group, the brand behind Austin, Texas, cult favorites such as Hotel Havana and Hotel Saint Cecilia, has an in-house retail team dedicated to curating product selection at each property.
“There’s no playbook for it — it’s really about the creativity and shared passion of the group doing the work and always being tuned in to what will add a special touch to our guests’ time with us, [adding to] the narrative of the place,” Bobby Johns, Bunkhouse’s director of culture and experience, told Skift. "Our retail spaces are a significant part of creating this sense of place in each hotel, so we take pride in providing items that reflect that.”
Six Factors Influencing Hotel Retail
While the Bunkhouse team's curation may be based on creative instinct, Whereabout.Studio founder and creati
