Ace Hotel true original lodging

I am thrilled to have experienced the original Ace Hotel (in Seattle) “happy place”. This 28-room lodging facility is brilliant for countless reasons, one of which is because it is not easily categorized. Is this Ace hip hostel? design-focused? boutique? lifestyle? apartment? sharing economy? It contains aspects from “all of the above” but with unique twists and turns to make it its own.

This brilliant invention came from the late Alex Calderwood in 1999 and has remained relevant ever since. It defined a now burgeoning group of Aces, named because an ace is both “high and low” and appeals to a wide variety of travelers.

The building itself is unassuming, situated on a hill in Belltown.  Not many lodging properties can boast a series of amenities and features that include a retro barber shop, Cyclops to eat and drink, waxing parlour, storefront breakfast room that doubles as guest laundry, my favorite lighting globes, guestroom keys (not key cards), no elevator service, unwrapped bars of soap (common-sense green), fine men’s haberdashery and a handful of immaculate shared (but private) WCs.

As the industry wrestles to come up with a name for the unbranded space, Ace certainly helped shape and define a sector of the industry, which I refer to as common sense ingenious.