Skift Take
In some ways, building a boutique hotel brand isn't much different from when the first pioneers did it in the early 1980s. The only distinction is that today, the competition is certainly tougher and increasingly more abundant.
When Paligroup CEO Avi Brosh decided to start his own hotel business in 2008, it was because he saw "a hole in the market." He thought there was an opportunity smaller, neighborhood-oriented hotels that local communities could champion.
Inspired by the boutique hotels he'd come across in Europe and in New York City, the former real estate developer embarked on opening his first hotel on his own. "Because the hotels I was opening were so unique, I really had to go it alone with respect to operating them, not only on the room side, but also on the food-and-beverage side," Brosh said.
Read More: Complete Oral History of Boutique Hotels
The learning curve, as Brosh put it, "was a long arc," and he said he spent the greater part of 2008 to 2013 "essentially learning the business." Now, having had that firsthand education in independent hospitality, Brosh is ready to grow the Paligroup into a much bigger boutique hotel brand.
Today, Paligroup has three Los Angeles-based hotels under two brands, namely Palihouse Santa Monica, Palihotel Melrose, and Palihouse West Hollywood. They have garnered a reputation for their unique design, and popular restaurants and bars. Four more hotels are already in the works, two of which will also be in Los Angeles, one in Seattle, and another in Miami. Brosh plans to have 30 hotels throughout the U.S. and, perhaps, beyond, within the next five to 10 years.
Skift recently spoke to Brosh to talk about his approach to hospitality, including what works and what doesn't, and the unique challenges of growing an independent boutique brand in today's increasingly consolidated hotel landscape.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Skift: What prompted you to start growing the brand more, going from three hotels to a total of seven?
Avi Brosh: Because I was so conditioned to developing these projects myself — meaning I was the developer and the operator and we designed everything ourselves, and we sort of did everything soup to nuts — I was just operating under the assumption that that was really what our model was going to be. It didn't really dawn on me that perhaps other people would want to collaborate with me going forward on projects. After we opened up the third property, what started to happen was people started to approach me with other communities about doing sort of like-minded properties, frankly all over the country, and not necessarily just in Los Angeles.
We took 2015 and 2016 to
