Meet Blue Flag Partners, The Boston-Based Hospitality Innovators Architecting Boutique Hotel Experiences For Luxury Explorers

Just about every summer time, throngs of solar-hungry (and lobster-craving) visitors make their yearly pilgrimage to New England’s cherished resort towns, from Nantucket to Martha’s Vineyard and the string of coastal settlements together “the Cape.” Postcard-caliber landscapes and heritage-prosperous enclaves have constantly been the region’s most magnetic draws. And now, with a growing collection of layout-centric boutique attributes from Boston-based Blue Flag Partners (like the boho-stylish Faraway manufacturer that debuted previous 12 months), there’s certain to be a charming character-filled hotel to getaway to in all your favored destinations.

Behind Blue Flag is a charismatic team of investment decision, actual estate, and hospitality experts—but above all, they consider themselves to be “explorers” at heart. Right before the company was launched in 2015, the three running partners located achievement in diverse, but complementary enterprise sectors: There’s Brad Guidi, a third-technology builder who was at the helm of the award-successful household design firm Guidi Households, Inc. Nantucket-indigenous Terry Sanford was Principal for true estate brokerage Territory.com. And lastly, Jason Brown, who served as President & Chief Enhancement Officer of AutoCamp and Chief Growth Officer for YOTEL (he kicked off his hospitality profession as a 14-yr-outdated intern at NYC’s Soho Grand lodge).

Blue Flag first arrived with each other as a household progress team, with 4 residences on Nantucket as the inaugural venture. In a couple small yrs, the agency evolved into a prolific developer of sought-just after communities, premier dining establishments, and high-style and design accommodations in some of the most fascinating areas in the state. In addition to the flagship Faraway Nantucket, 2022 will see the enlargement of the brand with a 3-bed room house designed by the Blue Flag team, additionally a new 12-important resort named Blue Iris, and a freshly obtained inn identified as The Beachside on Nantucket. Long run qualities in Martha Vineyard, Hamptons, and Deer Valley Angles are also in the is effective.

“A feeling of experience evokes anything we produce,” claims Sanford. “We are on a mission to be stewards of profound ordeals by way of all facets of our get the job done. Our formal mark honors the legendary nautical flag that alerts the commencing of a voyage. To generate this insignia, our tasks must be daring, inviting, and remarkable. These attributes are a consequence of a holistic progress solution grounded in bold ideas and unanticipated collaborations.”

Forbes spoke with Blue Flag Partners to understand additional.

Forbes: Blue Flag handles so a lot of features of the resort growth course of action. What is your collective mission?

Brad Guidi: We never just strive to make gorgeous accommodations we actually think that at the root of any excellent resort is its tale and the emotion it evokes. Each and every living narrative we make displays a passion for opening the doorway to remarkable, inspirational environments that final. That is not just resort converse possibly, we definitely suggest it.

Forbes: How does architecture and interior design suit into that philosophy?

Brad Guidi: Today’s luxurious explorers crave sites with a individuality that embraces their surroundings. Design has evolved so considerably in the earlier decade. Even some modern day design now appears, at instances, passé and unexciting. That’s why we are continuously difficult ourselves to uncover the genuine soul in the properties—not just by producing nice-hunting areas, but by really searching at its historical past, perception of spot, and encompassing community as we are searching for the property’s heartbeat. The target is to go further than what is expected and contact upon a little something deeper that will genuinely hook up to our attendees to force the boundaries and search for correct authenticity.

Very first factors initially, you have to regard the making for what it is. For example, the historic buildings at Faraway Nantucket were being by no means intended to have contemporary shiny interiors. We leaned into the patina of the buildings and strived to be additive to them by not stripping away their souls. In some circumstances, there are remarkable architectural information that can be enhanced and made to sing in other situations, we have to increase architectural specifics that are in line with the age of the buildings. Unlike new builds, functioning in the confines of historic buildings is often like an archaeological dig: You preserve scratching at the floor until eventually its serious beauty arrives up.

Forbes: Further than layout, how else do you stand out from other boutique lodge brand names?

Brad Guidi: I imagine what sets us apart previously mentioned all else is the practical experience our guests have. From the second you stage foot in 1 of our attributes, you might be encouraged to come to feel, discover, and ponder. I like to assume we are creators of practical experience. We consider that every new project is an invitation to embark on an sudden and intriguing journey. Design is mainly intuitive but when performed effectively, it gets to be a variety of storytelling.

We intention to notify these evocative tales, by developing genuine spaces, coupling that with authentic encounters. Choose Sister Ship, for instance. (The signature restaurant at Faraway Nantucket). The story of remarkable journeys previous is bolstered by the actuality that you may well sit down at the bar a single working day, and the bartender may possibly hand you a wax-sealed letter from a friend that could have been at the bar the previous calendar year. Or you may well opt for to go away a letter for a long run visitor. Creating a letter with pen and ink, and sealing it with hot wax, is a authentic experience that provides our company a feeling of link to the restaurant. It’s storytelling in its truest perception.

Forbes: What are some memorable resort activities that have motivated your method to hospitality?

Jason Brown: Great problem. We have experienced so quite a few and we are deeply influenced by our travels. For starters, Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone, London, is a extensive-time most loved of ours. The unwavering determination to element makes you sense like you are aspect of a little something even larger. Lengthy just after you examine out of the hotel you try to remember it for how it created you sense.

Daniel Meyer, CEO of Union Square Medical center team is a different. His consideration to depth, his commitment to his workers, and the visitor experiences are unparalleled. We aspire to be like that. Then there is the Soho Grand. I’m genuinely appreciative to my prolonged household in NYC for acquiring had the opportunity to intern there when it opened, which is a resort they constructed and nevertheless individual and function currently. I began in the hotel business enterprise at 14 residing in and performing each career conceivable at Soho Grand and, afterwards, its sister lodge the Tribeca Grand (now the Roxy Tribeca). It was by way of these ordeals that my adore for the market was born. I had my hands in almost everything and I figured out from the best. Rapidly forward from 1996, that resort continue to has the very same guest expertise now as it did back again then.

I feel a person of the finest achievements it produced was the way in which it impacted the neighborhood of SoHo. It changed it for the far better. It’s an critical place because it is at the forefront of our minds in every little thing we touch. How can we increase worth listed here? How can we have a favourable and long lasting effect on the neighborhoods we are touching? We want to inspire people effectively previous check out. Following all, the most effective boutique accommodations in the environment grasp and give form to the local community in which they are crafted. We aspire to do just that.

Forbes: Describe your flagship hotel brand, Faraway, in your individual words.

Brad Guidi: Faraway is a lot more than a put, it truly is a state of mind. We invite the youthful at heart to get out of the norm. Count on an unanticipated mix of wild and common. Impressed by the delights of curiosity, Faraway is rooted in the idea of prioritizing surprise and discovery for guests. Mixing kinds and influences throughout touchpoints reinforces the lived-in, treasured sense of the hotel. Think 1920’s Parisian salon fulfills New England maritime. We want people to be transported from the second they action foot on our house. We want folks to go investigate the island and return to a area the place the exploration continues—through layered layout, curated songs, and regionally sourced and fantastically geared up foods.

The term Nantucket is derived from an Algonquin phrase which means “faraway put.” This was the commencing issue from which we drew inspiration for the layout by telling a tale of an imaginary sea captain that set sail in her late twenties with her all-feminine crew this expedition was intended to very last several months, but ultimately sustained for about a ten years as they traveled the seas bringing again treasures, spices, and artwork from around the globe. Faraway, Nantucket has grow to be our muse’s property where by she shares this selection with our guests.

Forbes: How do you make your mind up which properties will be a part of the Faraway brand name portfolio or remain a standalone lodge?

Jason Brown: We are not always focused on creating lodge brands for the sake of scaling that brand name itself. Rather, we are targeted on making the best model for the proper lodge at the ideal time. We are unquestionably influenced by the community in which we are. For Faraway, in particular, we have been energized about making an “urban core way of living boutique hotel” in a resort market. As a shopper, you may finally see Faraway in other, similar “urban cores” in vacation resort marketplaces with the strategy of developing a campus-design encounter established across multiple structures comparable to Faraway, Nantucket. Let’s just say Faraway will be popping up in some of your most loved family vacation destinations on the east coastline in the really close to foreseeable future.

Forbes: What recent vacation tendencies are most impacting Blue Flag’s approach to hospitality and how?

Jason Brown: I assume there are two parts to this, both purchaser-going through and in the hospitality sector as a entire. Pre-pandemic we observed perform trending a lot more distant than ever right before, as more youthful generations of workforce (and businesses) desired a lot more independence in how, when, and in which they work and play. We also recognized that these attendees desired a boutique, life-style resort encounter in common vacation resort markets specially, they needed accommodations and restaurants that have been comparable to what they’d assume from an urban main marketplace like New York, London, or Paris, but in their beloved holiday destination. Plainly, this craze was accelerated through the pandemic, and we leaned into that.

On the hospitality side, we’ve also noticed a true drive for technological know-how to be built-in into the guest practical experience from both equally customers and operators. As a outcome, I imagine you can see a large amount more automation of inns in the long term. Whilst that could be a superior issue, it is also a quite wonderful line simply because it suggests you have to be thorough as a hotelier to not consider absent the human component of the guest practical experience. It only are unable to be a frictionless transaction. When points go wrong, and they will, you want a person there to take treatment of the visitor. At the conclude of the day, the people make the put. This is one thing we at Blue Flag have an understanding of and choose truly, definitely very seriously.