The Smart Rooms hotel chain expects to triple its turnover to €22 million

BarcelonaThe Catalan group Smart Rooms is not a conventional hotel chain. Its founder and CEO, Oriol Serra, comes from a family of hoteliers from Pallars Jussà, and his dream had always been to set up his own hotel in Barcelona. Ten years ago he finally succeeded: with a friend he co-founded Smart Rooms, a hotel manager that, despite the pandemic and the consequences it has had for tourism, has continued to expand throughout the world and by 2022 expects to have a turnover of 22 million of euros, twice as much as in 2019 and three times as much as the 6 million sales in 2021.

First, however, Serra worked on tourist and residential projects all over the world, advising hotel chains, and then spent a few years running the family hotel. This experience and knowledge of the sector meant that Serra was clear about how he wanted to differentiate himself from the rest. “We rely on the experience of live like a nativewith the aim that tourists find in the hotel the essence of the city they are visiting and an unbeatable service”, explains Serra.

A look at the Yurbban de la Rambla de Catalunya, one of its hotels in the center of the Catalan capital, evidences this intention: the walls display paintings and photographs by local artists, the food on offer is traditional from the area and the hotel offers activities and workshops based on Barcelona culture. In addition, they are currently in the construction phase of the hotel’s restaurant, for which they have made an investment of 600,000 euros and with which they hope to “claim the essence of the Rambla, where there are now many fast food places and few traditional Mediterranean”.

Long stays and student residences

Smart Rooms has a business model that goes beyond hotels. Its other line of business, The Spot, is based on longer-term stays and manages student residences and spaces for cohabiting. In these ten years, the company has opened businesses all over Spain, in places such as Barcelona, ​​Palma and Madrid, but also in Colombia, and its last opening was in Miami, in the United States.

In total, Smart Rooms has more than 1,080 rooms worldwide and, as Oriol Serra himself explains, the end of the pandemic and people’s desire to travel are evidenced by the bookings: “This year we already have between a 20% and 25% more bookings than in 2019, before the pandemic.” In the next five years, they hope to have a total of 2,000 rooms around the world.