The Student Hotel enters Spain with its new identity The Social Hub. Its renewed business model is based on hybrid accommodation, its values and the profile of its members and is reflected in the adoption of a new name more in line with its identity.
After ten years in the hotel business, The Student Hotel is now called The Social Club. While at first only students frequented these properties, over time more and more passionate people from all over the world who share common values and interests have come to stay.
The brand community has a 'student spirit' that has evolved over the years, and so the brand has evolved with it. Indeed, The Student Hotel has become a hybrid space comprising hotel rooms for tourists and travellers, workspaces for digital nomads and a creative playground for entrepreneurs and locals.
Hotels have become centres where "connections grow, ideas flow and change happens". Society has also evolved and people need real connection and positive change, so the brand wanted to meet these expectations.
As part of its expansion plans, The Social Hub is opening two new properties in Spain, in Madrid and Barcelona, with which it will launch its new brand identity and where it expects to welcome 1,000 new members and more than 50,000 guests to each in the first six months alone.
The Social Hub Madrid is located in the centre of the capital, opposite the Royal Palace, on the historic site of the Imprenta, the former headquarters of Semana magazine. Its 14,000 sqm of space houses various coworking and coliving spaces, 4-star hotel rooms, three rooftop terraces, a gym, a restaurant, a café and meeting rooms.
The Social Hub Barcelona is located in the creative and innovative heart of the city: Poblenou. Its hybrid community-oriented concept is the first of its kind in the Catalan capital. It combines a hotel, a 700-seat coworking space, extended-stay rooms, a café, a fusion restaurant, a gym, a solarium, two swimming pools, a 150-seat theatre and a rooftop bar.
The Social Hub's 13 currently operational units are located in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bologna, Florence and Vienna, and offer a wide range of design-led facilities, including spacious communal spaces, student accommodation, hotel rooms, coworking and meeting spaces, gyms, bars, restaurants and events and activities programmes.
According to Charlie MacGregor, CEO and founder of The Social Hub, the name change is attributed to a desire "to express and highlight the social impact of everything we do. Now more than ever, there is a need to be connected and make a positive change in the world, and I believe that together we can create a better society.
Frank Uffen, managing director of community and partnerships, added that with the new brand, "we will treat our customers in a new way: not just as travellers, students, digital nomads or entrepreneurs, but as a group of like-minded people".
