Hotel Operations Co., a Colombian boutique hotel developer and operator, is seeking to reshape how boutique hospitality functions in emerging tourism markets, according to General Manager Matias Maya Calad. In a recent interview, Maya Calad described the company’s approach to hotel development and operations, addressing persistent challenges in the boutique hotel sector.
“We realized that for a hotel to be profitable on the long run, the industry, the interest between most parties should be aligned,” said Maya Calad, who moved from running a startup law firm to hotel development in 2018. “We were seeing that all across the board, whereby most operators are taking big chunks of the profits of the business and leaving the investors without being able to get their returns.”
Hotel Operations Co was founded during Colombia’s tourism boom and has developed several properties across the country, including its flagship Boato Hotel in Guatape and the recently completed Perla Roca Hotel in Santa Marta.
Maya Calad explained that Hotel Operations Co’s integrated platform addresses a core issue in boutique hotel economics: “Boutique hotels have an issue. The issue is that they’re not big enough to have their own team built inside of their structure, but they are big enough to require most of the services that big hotels have.”
The company’s model creates a centralized operations center that handles accounting, tax, legal, human resources, marketing, sales, reservations, and supply chain functions for multiple properties, allowing individual hotels to focus on guest experience.
Maya Calad identified several factors that set Hotel Operations Co apart in the hospitality sector. The company’s integrated development and operations model—with distinct but connected divisions—enables faster decision-making and more efficient project execution.
Its economies of scale give boutique hotels access to enterprise-level services and resources while preserving each property’s individual character. Finally, a focus on speed to market allows the company to stay agile in rapidly evolving markets through a centralized structure that keeps all teams aligned and connected across projects.
The company’s approach has had a positive impact for boutique hotel investors. Their first project, Boato Hotel, benefited from being “the first boutique offer that was in the region” and achieved strong performance in its early years.
“We got great results during the first three years of that project,” Maya Calad said, noting that the separated cabin design was especially valuable after COVID when guests preferred isolated accommodations.
Maya Calad recognized ongoing challenges, especially around market saturation and competition: “The problem with hotel development and boutique hotel development is that as soon as you open up your project in a market, every single developers would want to replicate your success.”
The company addresses these issues by focusing on three strategic pillars: uniqueness, irreplicability, and positioning as the top product in each market to avoid commoditization.
Looking forward, Maya Calad plans continued expansion with an emphasis on larger-scale boutique properties. “We’re seeing that the products that were anticipating or having more of a volume in their structure, more rooms, more suites are doing really great, awesomely,” he said, indicating a move toward 40-64 room properties that can take better advantage of operational efficiencies while retaining boutique appeal.
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