The Social Hub, formerly known as The Student Hotel, lands in Barcelona with its hybrid accommodation model, based on mixing hotel rooms and long-stay rooms under the same roof, as well as coworking spaces. The first establishment of the Dutch chain, completely new, is located on Cristóbal de Moura street, in 22@, and has involved an investment of 60 million euros.
The building in the Catalan capital has about 300 rooms, which are equally distributed for users who stay a few nights and those who stay longer ---these have a shared kitchen---. They are designed in such a way that they can be converted into one type or another depending on the season.
The rooms are complemented by 3,300 square meters of coworking spaces, with 700 desks; an auditorium; a gym; two swimming pools on the terrace, and various restaurants. The price of the hotel room is 110 euros per night, while the residence rate starts from 43 euros per night, including access to the different services offered by the accommodation.
This combination of hotel and residence is aimed at students, but also at young professionals who spend time in the city and Barcelonians looking for a space to work, explains Frank Uffen, Director of Partnerships at The Social Hub. This adds the social club aspect, a model increasingly on the rise in the city, with other examples such as The Sircle or Juno House. At The Social Hub, the membership fee is 99 euros per month for those who do not stay but will use its coworking or gym. For those under 25, it is reduced to 69 euros per month.
In addition to the accommodation in 22@, with its opening scheduled for early November, The Social Hub will also arrive in Madrid, located in the city center, opposite the Royal Palace. In this case, it will not be a new construction building like the one in Barcelona, but the old printing house of Semana magazine has been rehabilitated. In the capital of Madrid, the residence rooms are already full until March 2023.
New openings in Spain and Europe
According to Uffen, these will not be the only establishments they plan to open in Spain. For next year they want to settle in San Sebastián and, in addition, cities such as Malaga, Bilbao and Valencia are being considered as future destinations, as well as new locations in Barcelona and Madrid.
At a European level, the Amsterdam-based chain has 16 establishments in operation, including the imminent ones in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as another planned for this year in Toulouse. All of this totals 11,000 rooms and a staff of 800 employees. With the backing of its partners Aermont Capital and the Singaporean fund GIC, the chain plans to open six more accommodations by 2025. They will be in Porto, Glasgow, Rome, Florence, Belfiore, Lisbon, and Turin.