Open houses as community hubs for ‘townsters’ and ‘tripsters’

Jo&Joe Open Houses will be dynamic social spaces, offering aspects of hotels, hostels and private rentals for locals and visitors alike across several cities.

The hospitality industry is increasingly looking to co-living spaces as both affordable accommodation and community hubs, as we’ve seen with a London-based housing project and a worldwide live/workspace initiative, and a new project is aiming to put a range of ‘open houses’ on the map.

Jo&Joe is a collaboration between the Accor Hotels group and interior design firm Penson that envisions Open Houses that combine aspects of hotels, hostels, private rentals and social spaces. Targeting the millennial market, the Open Houses will offer a range of ‘experiences’ that users are able to help curate via the ‘who’s up for?’ feature in the Jo&Joe app, and modular sleeping arrangements that provide customizable bed zones for any user’s preferred levels of privacy. Looking to open in 20 cities across the world, from Paris to Sao Paolo, by 2020, Jo&Joe will offer affordable accommodation at EUR 25 per night, with the aim of attracting both locals (whom they dub ‘townsters’) and tourists (or ‘tripsters).

What else can co-living concepts offer communities?