![postcard inn postcard inn](https://thumbcdn-0.hotelurbano.net/IB6AZS6lDp7nVHUx4NNuQ-uQ2hg=/trim:bottom-right:80/fit-in/625x0/bottom/filters:quality(30)/https%3A//i.travelapi.com/hotels/1000000/20000/11900/11864/a2269b03_z.jpg)
The rooms and suites feel like classic beach cottages, complete with clapboard headboards, shiplap walls, and mounted fish trophies.ĭrinking and dining-what are we looking at? This particular hotel has an interesting history: Its legendary Tiki Bar first opened in 1969 and is supposedly home to the original tiki classic, the Rum Runner. Postcard Inn is part of the Islamorada Resorts Collection, which also includes Amara Cay, Pelican Cove, and La Siesta. Once inside, though, you'll be struck by its relaxing ambience. Postcard Inn Beach Resort & Marina is right on Overseas Highway in Islamorada, so it doesn't offer a tucked-away feeling from the front. Guest Restaurants, co-owned by Starwood Capital Group.Why did this hotel catch your attention? What's the vibe? For that he turned to his friend and business partner Stephen Hanson, founder of B.R. So he came up with an alternative: renovate the Travelodge to transform what was a down-at-the-heels motel into a chic inn. But the neighbors banded together and objected to the proposed development, and the plan languished until the economy finally undermined the viability of Sternlicht’s project. The Postcard Inn story begins in 2005, when Barry Sternlicht, the high-profile chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, led his company to acquire the Travelodge, with plans to raze the motel and build a condo-hotel. Now, in its latest incarnation, the property joins a new wave of stylish, affordable beach hotels, including the Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, and the Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara, California. Built in 1957 as the Colonial Gateway Inn, a 204-room, two-story, U-shaped motel with a large pool and a grove of mature royal palms at its core, it became a Travelodge in 1999. Pete Beach, Florida, is hip, affordable, and resolutely casual. True to its surfer-cool, 1950’s-motel roots, The new Postcard Inn, in St.
#Postcard inn series
Further reminding guests that they are not in just another generic motel, on the wall behind the beds is either a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall photo mural of a lone surfer on a longboard in the curl of a tsunami-scale wave, a photographic collage of all things surfing-oriented, or a colorful, typographically lively series of quotes from legendary surfers as well as Thoreau, the Beach Boys, Warhol, Jay-Z, and others. Down-filled duvets with crisp white covers have replaced the bedspreads.
#Postcard inn windows
To lighten and brighten the rooms, they opted for white wood venetian blinds for the windows and a sand-colored, sisal-like flooring that is actually woven vinyl. The objective was to jettison the dark, dated, oppressive feel of the Travelodge guest rooms, so out went the musty wall-to-wall deep-pile carpeting, ink-blue patterned bedspreads, matching curtains and valances, and heavy, ornate wooden headboards. Though no two are exactly alike, the rooms all have vintage table lamps on new pickled and stained birch desks, flat-screen TV’s, Wi-Fi, and, flanking the beds, classic black-metal drafting lamps with articulated arms. “We’re looking to build a successful brand with unique character that will cater to all types of travelers-singles, couples, families with children-looking for more than just the trendiest new hotel,” Hanson says. In practical terms what that means is he was determined to renovate the aging motel into accessible, affordable accommodations-$99 out of season (July through December), $189 in season (January to June)-but with a bit of user-friendly flair, including the addition of Wildwood Barbeque & Burger, an outpost of one of his busy New York restaurants. “Howard Johnson meets JetBlue is probably where we want to be,” he says. Hanson had a dramatically different agenda for the Postcard Inn on the Beach. It has neither the aesthetic panache, the too-cool-for-school attitude, nor the room rates of such well-known hotels. The Postcard Inn is, in fact, a world away from, say, South Beach’s Delano and Shore Club. Despite the trend over the past two decades, what Hanson had in mind for St.