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What's the Deal With Room Mate Hotels?

Room Mate Leo, Granada

Room Mate Hotels first caught our attention when Andre Balazs sold the Hotel QT to the Spanish chain and Times Square's pool-in-the-lobby hotel transformed fairly quietly into Room Mate Grace. Today, Budget Travel mentions the Spanish brand on a list of some of Spain's chicest hotel chains, and we just found a deal on Quikbook promising $119 rooms (if you stay 3+ nights) at NYC's Room Mate Grace.

Still, we didn't know too much about the chain's concept — or, for that matter, exactly why all the Room Mate hotels had person-names attached to them. So we put on our investigatin' pants and got in touch with Enrique “Kike” Sarasola, President and CEO of Room Mate Hotels — and (fun fact!) a former Olympic horseback rider.

Kike started the chain in Spain after realizing that most guests don't spend time in their hotel doing much besides sleeping, showering, or eating breakfast when they're there to see the city. With that in mind, the key priorities for every Room Mate hotel, he says, are 1) to make sure that all properties are in prime locations and 2) that the beds, showers and free breakfasts are excellent and consistent across the entire chain.

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