How hip can you get

CNN once had a feature on hip hotels, the newest concept in the hospitality industry that’s raging across the globe. I narrowly missed the feature just as I missed Christiana Amanpour’s documentary on North Korea and its nuclear threat.

After long years of wear and tear, and diminishing returns, I would surmise redevelopment of real estate particularly of apartment buildings, hotels and such is a smart move. Gilarmi for instance has long been threatening to be torn down and redeveloped into a new structure, but I still see it when passing Ayala Avenue. It has huge rooms at inexpensive rates; food there is not so bad either. Mr. Ruben Tiu, my former client, gave us discount for the rooms at Gilarmi, is also into Discovery Suites, among others.

I learned from Google Search, why it’s called Hip Hotels. Hip stands for Highly Individual Places, and trendy, get it? To give substance to that meaning, somewhere in the heart of Makati will rise a hip hotel. It’ll be a restructured building from that I know to be where my cousin resides when he’s in Manila, away from his family in San Francisco.

Already as I tapped interested parties, one of them asked if the whole project was for sale. Hep, hep, only 35 units I’m told are for sale as a block, in other words, wholesale. No tingi, and later on, these will be operated by a group as a condotel. Now, how many of you don’t know as yet what that means? It’s coined from condominium and hotel, principally different in meaning by use from a hotel as against a condominium. But they could mix, couldn’t they as it shows?

This Hip Hotel in Makati is the first. I can’t tell you what it’s planned to be called. It’s going to be a cool place, zeroing on hip-hoppers primarily, or the papaya dancers, or fox-trotters, or the minimalists but surely the globe-trotters. When I get to see it for myself in concrete terms, I’ll cue it for rating.