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Seaside’s Owner to Opens Four My Story Hotels this Year

15 February 2018

The firm’s wager on downtown Lisbon is being redoubled with the inauguration, in early March, of My Story Tejo. The group also expects to open its first 5-star hotel soon.

Acácio Teixeira, a well-known entrepreneur in the footwear sector and the founder and owner of Seaside stores, created the My Story Hotels brand. The executive chose Manuel Goes to manage and help in the realisation of their diversification into real estate investments, which they based on two of the executive’s long-time passions: hotels and the capital’s downtown area.

The story of Mr Teixeira new investments began with the hotel that is currently being finalised before its inauguration at the beginning of next month. In 2012, the executive bought the Hotel Lisboa Tejo and, although My Story did not exist at the time, “there was already the idea and the will,” Mr Goes, director-general of the hotel chain, stated. The hotel they acquired had “some name and a lot of history”, but it was a “down at the heels, and required a certain measure of maintenance and suffered from a lack of comfort.” The timely decision to invest would prove to be an inspiring success and would end up accelerating the creation of the My Story chain and a subsequent increase in their investments in hotels.

Currently, the chain is preparing, after a process of expansion and remodelling that goes back to 2015, to open company’s original investment in the sector, though now as a part of the My Story Hotels brand, while maintaining the Tejo name. The hotel is located in Poço do Borratém (between Praça da Figueira and Martim Moniz) and increased its previous capacity of 58, while raising the quality of the hotel’s installations.

My Story Augusta, which will have 46 rooms, is also under preparation for inauguration in the first semester of this year. My Story Figueira will follow soon behind. Located on the Praça da Figueira, the 4-star establishment will have 77 rooms and is expected to open in the second half of the year.

My Story Ouro will be the chain’s first five-star hotel, opening in a building, outside the Pombaline area, that was completely demolished in 1912. The property was rebuilt as the headquarters of the Sagres company, which was subsequently acquired by the Bem Saúde Group. The five-star hotel will have 56 to 57 rooms. A decision has not yet been reached as to whether the company will add the new five-star establishment to its portfolio of My Story hotels, or if they will create a new brand.

Outside of the downtown area, under a different brand that the firm declined to reveal, a 123-bedroom unit will be inaugurated at Prior Viejo at Seaside’s headquarters.

In this first half of 2018, the company is investing in another project, this time in the city of Porto, though not under the My Story Hotels brand. In Santa Catarina, the firm is developing a property with 12 flats, as the building did not have the necessary conditions to function as a hotel. However, Mr Goes guaranteed that they are studying other opportunities in Porto for the My Story brand. However, high prices and speculation in the real estate market, as is the case in Lisbon as well, have been a barrier to entry.

In Lisbon once again, though the investments are still at a very early stage, the firm is also planning a unit at the Praça da Figueira, with 90 rooms, and another at the Rua dos Sapateiros, with just 26 rooms.

Stories and histories foster proximity

Between 2014 and 2015, the fact that Seaside owned the pombaline building in Rossio where a shoe store already operated, as well as having acquired another historic building on the Rua do Ouro, both provided the impetus that led the creation of My Story Hotels. Construction of the two establishments went in parallel, but My Story Ouro was completed first, while they inaugurated Rossio in 2015.

Mr Goes says that owing to the expected structural difficulties that the iconic pombaline cage (a stone building reinforced with an internal wooden structure) beings along with it, the hotel’s concept developed in expression and form. Today, given the fast pace of growth of the chain, there are still some aspects that need to be improved upon, but the hotel chain’s guiding principle, proximity to the client, has been entirely achieved. “These challenges have made it possible for hotels to have exceptional features. Each room is unique, and all are replete with history. This is our basic idea, an attempt to tell the story of each establishment in parallel with the history of the city and the downtown area. At the same time, the idea is to allow guests to tell us the stories of their stay in Lisbon. The common thread is one of proximity.” When you arrive at a My Story, you are invited to learn about the stories and histories through notes of the hotels and their decorations, which the receptionists provide, and which are also displayed in the rooms, along with info that is listed on our website. Clients can also download apps that tell a little about the history of Lisbon. “We tried to tell a story that goes beyond the standard tourist fare. While it’s true that others try to do the same thing, in our case, we located in buildings that are replete with their own stories, and we’ve turned that into a differentiating factor. That is the point of tourism and these experiences: to learn about other cultures, the history of other countries,” the executive concluded.

Original Story: Jornal Econômico – Sónia Bexiga

Translation: Richard Turner