Hotel Indigo Tallahassee – CollegeTown makes its debut with its interpretation of the region’s railway and underground caves.
This seven-story, 143-room boutique hotel operated through InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has approximately 5650 hotels of its Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites brands, among others.
The Indigo hotel in Tallahassee was originally scheduled to open in May. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its global impact on the hotel industry boosted the date to August.
“This allowed us to make sure that we had all the right protocols in place and that we didn’t have any recycling. All our staff has been hired with existing protocols and procedures in position for COVID.
Please note that the hotel uses social distance and mandatory internal mask of the hotel. In addition, cleaning is not done in the rooms every day, however, Jenofonte said that visitors can request items such as towels as needed.
“We can offer consumers every single thing they need, but right now we leave blank every five days,” Xenophon said. “Then we give a time for a guest to leave the room for an hour so that our staff is safe, and we stick to our proper bleaching protocols.”
Xenophon said the hotel uses hospital grade disinfectants, a practice not unusual in the hotel industry.
The Florida State football season is still scheduled to begin on September 12 with a house game opposed to Georgia Tech, as long as the rules of public fitness do not replace dramatically.
With this working in favor of the hotel, Xenophon said he hoped the new hotel would still work well. However, tourism and hospitality experts monitor occupancy rates and industry trends to discern the effect of the pandemic on local hotels.
“Our expectations and hopes are that the hotel will do well and that means a good number of people will stay with us,” Jenofonte said. “At this time, the rate of market position occupancy is around 30%, and continues to grow month by month. We have put all those protocols and procedures in place with the concept that we are on buses.
A high season, he said, would constitute at least 70% occupancy. Xenophon advances two weekends as the first wave of potential guests.
Despite housing in major Florida cities such as Gainesville, Sarasota and St. Petersburg and the cities of London, Madrid and Paris, no Indigo Hotel asset is the same.
It’s an intentional difference as business designers rush to cities to infuse a region’s history and character into aesthetics.
The concrete floors, black brick walls and commercial touches of the Indigo Hotel provide a unique look that combines the beyond with the present.
The mastery of Gaines Street was once a railway mall that resulted in brick factories, flour generators and bottling companies. Today, the domain is a lively cross-section of shopping, dining and nightlife between the barriers of Florida State and Florida A-M universities.
“The railroad trend is obvious on the property,” said General Manager Mark Xenophon, adding blue shadows that pay homage to the area’s underground caverns and the water trend that unites Cascades Park and Wakulla Springs.
The elegant opening took place on August 3 and the hotel began receiving reservations 3 days later.
The hotel has a place to eat on site called “R-R” that offers local vendors like Bradley’s Country sausage and Lucky Goat coffee. It also includes a personal meeting room and approximately 1,800 feet of meeting space.
“Anyone who has called assets directly or entered assets could involve them in our elegant opening,” Xenophon said. “It was a wonderful pleasure for them and helped us.”
Tourism connoisseurs see the Indigo Hotel as an extension of the “connected” freshness of CollegeTown and Gaines Street, Kerri Post, director of the Tallahassee Division of Tourism and Visit from Leon County.
“I imagine a similar effect on the new progression (AC through the Marriott Hotel) and Cascades that will pass online early next year,” Post said. “These two houses will upload books to the thriving Gaines Street neighborhood, greatly expanding the appeal and access for visitors and residents.”
Visiting the Hotel Indigo, Post said she was impressed. Tallahassee hasn’t had a new full-service hotel of this caliber in years, said Post, who praised his unique attention to detail.
“These assets built in particular for Tallahassee, and for CollegeTown in particular, and built from the ground up to meet all those express needs,” Post added. “Indigo hotels are high-end institutions recognized for reflecting the markets they serve. It’s an extraordinary logo in a wonderful location with proven control equipment, and it will certainly be very well won by visitors.”
Contact TaMaryn Waters on [email protected] or @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.
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