Lodging startup Mint House, a company that looks to bridge the gap between a hotel experience and luxury apartments, began with a simple concept: a hotel stay was the least tech-enabled leg of any travel journey.
"So back in 2017, I began trying to understand why it is that airports were able to do away with the mandatory in-person check-in process where we had to go to the front desk at the airport to get our boarding pass — and that was done 15 years ago — and yet 98% of hotels are still requiring a mandatory check-in process," founder and CEO Will Lucas said while speaking to HNN at the 2021 Americas Lodging Investment Summit. "Turns out there are some interesting structural reasons that exist in the industry that make it very difficult — not impossible but very difficult — to implement technology through the operating model."
So Lucas and his team ventured to build a new model better equipped to respond to guests' needs via technology and more in-line with shifting desires for a more high-end alternative accommodations.
"What has happened is there's been a massive explosion in demand for apartment-style or Airbnb-style accommodations that has taken place over the last 10 years, and that has created a glaring need for professionalized branded operators to deliver all the things that [hotel] brands do," he said. "So today, we're operating in 24 buildings and have another three coming on line in the next two months."
He also noted that during the pandemic, length of stay has exploded, averaging as high as 21 days, compared to three to four nights prior to the pandemic.
Lucas said although his company began on the tech side rather than in lodging, executives value and have been able to deliver a high-end experience.
"Just recently in New York, our property Mint House at 70 Pine was just named the best-ranked hotel in the country by TripAdvisor. ... So I think that's a real testament to the technology that we've been using and how that impacts guest experience," he said.
Watch the video above for more on how Mint House is leveraging tech to build a hybrid hotel brand.