While New York-based BD Hotels has been in business for almost three decades, it has more recently received acclaim for its position as one of the progenitors of the "microhotel" properties with super-small rooms that have popped up around Manhattan during the last few years. The company opened the 370-room Pod Hotel 51 on East 51st Street in 2007 and converted West Village's 150-room the Jane from an old single-room occupancy hotel a year later. Last year, BD Hotels opened the 366-room Pod Hotel 39, and it has further plans for properties in Brooklyn and near Times Square. In all, the company operates 25 hotels, including the Maritime, Chambers and Blakeley Hotels. BD Hotels principal Richard Born spoke with Travel Weekly hotels editor Danny King.
Q: Your first two Pod hotels have been well-received. How do you plan to build on that success and broaden the brand?
A: Both Pod 51 and Pod 39 are doing really, really well. Occupancy is in the 92% to 94% range. So we have acquired a site in [Brooklyn's] Williamsburg to build a Pod. It's between Fourth and Third streets, just off Bedford -- it's a really good location. Right now, it's a partially vacant lot with a couple of small buildings. It'll have 250 rooms, and we are planning on breaking ground by year-end, so it'll probably open 24 months from now.
Q: What about other Manhattan sites?
A: We're also going to be at 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue, where Times Square is going to meet Hudson Yards. That's a big hotel: over 600 rooms. We're also planning on breaking ground there by year-end. That'll probably open up the beginning of 2016.
Q: There have also been reports that you're looking at a Lower East Side site at Seward Park.
A: There's a big slot of properties that have been vacant for 40, 50 years, and the city is kicking around plans. We finally got [a request for proposal]. It's certainly not a given that we'll get it, but if we do, that'll be about 300 rooms. We're supposed to hear back by November.
Q: Up until the first Pod, you'd opened a range of independent but more conventional hotels throughout New York City. Why have you more recently focused on this particular niche and this particular brand?
A: When you look at the swath of three-star hotels -- Holiday Inn, Quality, Hilton Garden Inn -- their rooms are 250 to 300 square feet, but the design is not very evocative. We think we create very efficient spaces, and we can give the traveler everything they need in a very cool environment with a great common area, in half the space, all while attracting a very eclectic group of travelers. We know we can. We've done it twice.
Q: Would you put Pod in the same boat as Yotel?
A: We're very different from Yotel. We're a little less slick than Yotel, a little more techy.
Q: Will Pod be a New York-only brand?
A: I'm really convinced we can go to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Any major urban center should be an easy place to start. We're taking baby steps in that direction because we don't want to spread ourselves too thin.
Q: What about non-U.S. sites?
A: We're in conversations with some groups overseas. Asia is a natural fit. And we could end up planning one in London, Paris or Rome. But we're a relatively small and a relatively local group. Whatever we do ourselves, we're going to do slowly and cautiously.
Follow Danny King on Twitter @dktravelweekly.