It isn’t every day that we come across something truly unique and worth looking into. Just like finding the perfect dress for a date night after hours and hours of searching at the department store, the feeling of discovery is one that is hard to ignore. When we look for potential places to stay in as we plan a vacation, we’re lucky to have so many choices – five-star hotels, Airbnb, hostels, even a relative’s home – but there has recently been an emerging concept of accommodation that is simply too good to be true.
SCP Hotel (Soul Community Planet) has been accepting guests with the condition that you pay whatever amount you deem acceptable. Sounds crazy? It might be for some, but to SCP Hotel they are banking on transparency and accountability.
SCP wants to be known for its “holistic hospitality”. Its first hotel opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and boasts a 12,000-square-foot fitness center, group fitness classes, and a market that sells homegrown vegan food and drinks. There are 174 rooms, rustically styled with reclaimed wood, a common area with WiFi access, and flora and fauna all over.
SCP believes in “fair trade pricing”; that is if the price you initially agreed to doesn’t stack up to the experience you were hoping for, you can haggle for a lower rate. Price ranges from $90 to $200, taking into consideration the season.
“We’re committed to delivering exceptional guest experiences at a fair price. We’re confident that if our guests have a great stay at our hotels and pay a fair price, they’ll walk away happy and hopefully tell their friends about our concept,” chief executive of SCP Hotels Ken Cruse told Well+Good.
SCP’s fair pricing model will be expanding soon, with plans to open 30-40 hotels across the United States in the next few years. “We want to lead by being good, not by being profitable,” Cruse told The New York Times. “We think of profits as a byproduct of the new experience.”
We pay such a premium for a stay at a hotel, and the “name-your-price” strategy is still a newbie in the hospitality industry but it seems as if SCP’s risks are slowly paying off.