Our journey into the hospitality industry started one fateful weekend, years ago, when we decided to take a trip up to the Mount Washington Valley in New Hampshire. We were excited to test out a new service, Homeaway (AirBnB was just a twinkle in Joe Gebbia’s eye), and stay at someone’s ski condo. Stay at a stranger’s condo… sure what could go wrong?
We received a list of instructions from the owners, which included shimmying into a tight crawl space to turn on the hot water heater. We enjoyed a cold weekend in the mountains, sharing the romantic confines of a rock hard full-size bed. We immediately thought that this idea was great and that we could do it better.
Shortly thereafter we were renting vacation properties on these platforms. Caution to the wind, right? It was a fun and memorable journey that taught us many lessons that we still use to this day. Here are a few useful nuggets:
Armed with this valuable knowledge, we decided to take the next step and build a hotel brand that would provide guests the comfort, amenities and experience that we enjoy when travelling. We wanted to create a product and brand that was memorable, unique, creative, playful and luxurious and out of that ethos, Addison Choate was born.
Take a closer look at what we are creating here in Rockport, Massachusetts: