open in Lisbon winking at Porto
“It’s not a hotel, it’s a restaurant with rooms above it”, tells us Cédric Gobillard, director of the Mama Shelter hotel chain, who received Dinheiro Vivo in one of the rooms near Largo do Rato. The hotel opened in Lisbon at the beginning of the year in the so-called soft opening, but expectations were exceeded and the group’s investors were already looking at locations in Porto. But there we go. It is necessary to explain what the Mama Shelter concept is, after all. At first glance, the design and location jump out, and then the lifestyle.” It is difficult to define lifestyle, deep down it means nothing, each of us has our own lifestyle, but the concept of Mama Shelter is sharing, enjoyment of life, fun, good vibes and a community that is governed by values of respect and equality, basically it’s about bringing together people who see themselves in these values and that’s our goal”, says Cédric, who, without losing his breath, concludes: “And it’s not marketing, we want to create in a community these values
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The Shelter business began in 2008 when the Trigano family – the creators of Clube Med – decided to invent a concept of hospitality different from the classicism that hospitality experienced in the 2000s.
The first Mama Shelter opened in 2008 in Paris, in the 20th arrondissement of the French capital, the same place where one of the most famous cemeteries in the world is located: Père La Chaise where Jim Morrison or Óscar Wilde are buried, among others. The following openings were in Bordeaux and following Lyon. He later tried his luck in Los Angeles, USA. It was at that time that the hotel group, contact Dinheiro Vivo with the chain’s director, began looking for strong partners to grow the chain, “but that respect and do not tamper with the Mama Shelter concept and philosophy”.
And in 2014 the Hotel Group Agreement [que detém marcas como o Mercure, Novotel, e Ibis, entre outros] become the majority shareholder in the business. However, the Trigano family remained, and always remains in business, as a marketing and communication consultant. The relationship is even closer – a consultancy contract signed for four years – and, at the opening of the “restaurant with rooms above” in Lisbon, co-founders Ser and Jérémie Trigano were present.”The transition has been very light and this has been a success factor that guarantees that Mama Shelter has maintained the same philosophy since its creation”, explains Cédric Gobillard.
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The deal seems to be going well as the Accord group has even created a lifestyle division to protect the brand for the Triganos hotels” and even created more lifestyle concepts with such as 25 hours, Hyde, Mondrian, SLS and Jo&Joe.
“The Accord group created a platform with 14 lifestyle brands, including Mama Shelter, in a completely different company from the group. The next question is obvious: is there cannibalization of these brands? “No, not at all”, says Cédric, who adds : ” The locations are different and there is a luxury lifestyle, such as Mondrian, which is located in the US or, for example, 25Hours, which is aimed at the public in Germany, the positioning of the brands is very defined”.
“local” business
Mama Shelter’s business model is relatively simple. There is a checklist that cannot fail to start thinking about a Mama Shelter unit: the restaurant space has to be big – F&B (Food & Beverage) that comes from a large part of the business profit – with a minimum of one hundred fours and a roof. “It’s our locations in several cities. There are investors who come to us with our assessment according to the locations, just like we look for and if everything goes well and the management of everything, we charge a fee for that. It’s the basis of the our business”, explains the director. And no, there are no investment figures, “that information stays with the investor”.
And beyond the design and decoration, which the hotel in Lisbon is impregnated with Viúva Lamego tiles and Bordallo Pinheiro tableware, there is an almost “strange” issue for a hotel: it is a place for the locals, for those who live in Lisbon. “We want to be one of the most interesting places in the city for Lisboners. As in other cities, hotels in Paris are for Parisians or hotels in Rome for the Romans. Have a local experience.” Like social networks, Ma tries as long as possible connected to it. “We have terraces, rooftops, people can come for a coffee, work, have dinner and stay afterwards to listen to a DJ set”. In fact, the group is a development of coworking spaces that exist in some hotels in France and Luxembourg, called Mama Works.
“We measure our profit not by rooms, but by square meter. We optimize each space at Mama Shelter, we have a bar, we have results. That’s what convinces our investors. We compare ourselves, in terms of business, with office spaces and not with classic hotel where there is so much space”.
And a competition? With a concept that aims to be so different from other hotels, with whom do you “fight” to gain market share? “All the trendiest restaurants in Lisbon are our real competitors, the small boutique hotels too, but they usually have higher prices compared to ours” – a room at Mama Shelter Lisboa starts at 89 euros.
Plans for the future
The business in Portugal is “running well and we are above expectations when it comes to the restaurant, sometimes we have queues waiting for a seat”. Despite the positivity, the official says that the pandemic brought with it a difficult period for the business, “but a recovery is above the sector average, especially for locals and not so much for tourists”.
In Portugal they are already looking at other places. “We are fighting for a place in Porto”, explains the official, but there is still nothing concrete. We have contracts to open ten more hotels nearby in the two years, we know that we will grow to 26 units and there are 15 more places with good prospects, in Porto as well as in some places in Spain”, he explains.
As a curiosity or not, and despite not being part of the fun of the business – “it’s more for and because guests ask us” – at the hotel it’s buying mattresses and pillows for the rooms. In addition, there is a range of objects, bones, t-shirts and jackets with the Mama Shelter logo. It’s not business or marketing, but what it looks like, it looks like it.