Boutique Design - Fall 2022 - 83

THE GREAT ROOM AT THE PL AC ID BAY HOTEL
A GUES TROOM RENDER I NG OF THE UPCOMI NG REVAMP OF
THE JACK DANIEL S INN IN PE TERBOROUGH , NEW HAMPSHIRE
How did you get started in hospitality, and what's
your vision for Weekender? I was the listing broker for
[the Great Pines] resort when I was growing a luxury
real estate team in upstate New York. I couldn't fi nd a
buyer for it and ended up buying it with two friends-a
husband-and-wife team from Manhattan. They moved
from the city and were the operators and minority
partners. I was the majority vision, strategy, capital
partner. Fast forward to 2019, almost 2020. I started to
get the itch to do this again, meaning I started to see
with a pandemic how things were starting to change and
an opportunity emerge for people starting to prioritize
experiences, the great outdoors, wide open spaces. This
was personally resonant with me-yearning to always be
traveling and moving and exploring this idea of wanting
to spend more vacation time out in the great outdoors
and not just sitting on a beach with a book, though there's
nothing wrong with that. But I was seeing the way I like to
travel become more mainstream.
KEIR WEIMER
FOUNDER
WEEKENDER
SAR ATOGA SPR I NGS, NEW YORK
Is smaller better for Weekender? Now as we start to look
at new opportunities and are speeding up the acquisition
pace, we've kept the size small. Our sweet spot is 20 to
25 rooms. Going from here [we might] start to look at
slightly bigger properties and markets, but we don't want
to get too far away from that intimate boutique feel,
which as we know is not always attached to a room count
number. We're going to be careful in our acquisition
strategy to not lose the character and feel of what we've
done so well.
How does design factor into your properties? Until this last
property in New Hampshire we've actually done all of the
design in-house. But I've realized we can't do everything,
and I'd like to increasingly surround myself and our
company with great experts in their own fi elds. We have
partnered with a local fi rm in Saratoga Springs called
Studio K., [helmed by] Kennedy Flack. She works directly
with me on the creative concept for a new hotel, from the
mood boards, to sourcing and procuring a lot of the FF&E
to execute on the design vision. Each of our hotels has
their own unique identity and brand. We don't call every
hotel Weekender. The Weekender is the tie-in brand that
underpins, supports, and provides a level of expectation
no matter what location you stay at. But we can retain that
local character, that local brand, the local connectedness
to the community of each individual hotel's brand.
What's next? We are now in major leisure markets in
[New York's] Adirondack Park and in Southern New
Hampshire. We're just fi nishing a renovation in a town
called Peterborough about an hour from Boston-right
on a river, a really cool place called the Jack Daniels Inn.
We are also in contract for our fi rst acquisition in central
Vermont, and we have a second Vermont property coming
under contract shortly. We have our third property in
Lake Placid coming under contract. All these speak to
slightly different demographics. [Lake Placid is] growing
and though three is a lot in one small market, this one
can support it. Next year our plan is to spread south in
New York. We want to be in the Hudson Valley; we'd like
to have a property in the Catskills and we're probably
going to acquire and renovate a property in my kind-of
hometown and our corporate headquarters in Saratoga
Springs, just north of Albany. Beyond that we're going
to spread the wings a bit. I've already been exploring
markets out West in Colorado and Utah. We want to be
down South. We want to be in California. Potentially as
early as the end of 2023, but probably more likely in 2024.
Are there hospitality brands that inspire you? I'm staying
at the San Francisco Proper hotel [right now]. It's like an
oasis, a really a cool place you wouldn't have expected
would be right here. I'm looking around, seeing what
they're doing. I'm seeing the touches and the products,
the little cards in which they offer advice on the best
places to go in downtown San Francisco. It's the way
the staff at the front desk greet you and the door opens
before you even ask. I get a lot of inspiration from my own
travels. Not just the energy around travel and exploration
and how that activates me as a human, but also how other
hoteliers are doing it too. BD
BOU T I QUE DE S I GN . COM
83
PHOTOS: JOE MEIROSE FOR WEEKENDER
Boutique Design - Fall 2022

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