Boutique Hotel Brand Faraway Tests Campus Concept

At first glance, Faraway Nantucket, a 62-room boutique hotel created by the real estate investment and development firm Blue Flag Partners, may seem like just another shingle-clad property on the Massachusetts island. But take a step inside, and the interiors seem anything but traditional or ordinary.

“We thought: Let's see if we can give you something you would see in Paris, London, or New York, and will people like it?” said Jason Brown, managing partner at Blue Flag Partners. “We worried that maybe they wouldn't. Maybe we’ll open, and they’ll be like, ‘We love the old charm of Nantucket, we hate this cool boutique thing.'"

"But it has worked out pretty well, and we’ve kept going,” Brown said.

Now, Blue Flag is launching its second Faraway hotel — the 58-room Faraway Martha’s Vineyard, also in Massachusetts, this month.

While Blue Flag does stand-alone hotel launches, the Martha’s Vineyard property fits under the Faraway umbrella, considering both hotels are made up of multiple buildings that connect together, which they refer to as a “campus.”

On Nantucket, for example, the hotel consists of eight 19th-century buildings, including an old captain’s house, a meeting house, an old inn, and a private home. On Martha's Vineyard, the hotel is made up of nine buildings, like the Kelley House (dating from 1742), as well as a building that was constructed to house the film crew for Jaws.

“All of that is just one large enclosed campus with all this greenery as you walk around, and you can eat and drink anywhere, and it’s really quirky and interesting and fun,” said Brown.

Blue Flag is hoping that guests like a specific building on campus and request to stay there