eople typically ask me how we built Urban Cowboy into a boutique brand. The truth is that there isn’ t any real playbook or blueprint.

We joke that we were accidental hoteliers. We didn’ t come from a major hotel company or inherit decades of operating experience. We started with a small bed and breakfast in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, around the time it became a hipster enclave but well before it became an international destination. We weren’ t trying to build a hotel brand: We solely wanted to build a place we wanted to exist— a place we wanted to invite our friends, travelers and the creative community to.

Looking back, that was our biggest advantage.

AND DID IT... OUR WAY We didn’ t have institutional backing. We didn’ t have the budgets, departments or corporate infrastructure that larger hotel companies rely on. Every decision— creative, operational, experiential— came from us. While that made things harder, it also created an incredible amount of freedom to create in our mold.

When you’ re small, you can adjust in real time. You don’ t need committees to approve an idea or months to implement a change. If something doesn’ t feel right, you fix it. If something resonates with guests, you double down. That nimbleness is a competitive advantage.

More importantly, you develop an obsession with details. Consider our original Brooklyn property: We

meticulously burned palo santo in different rooms, experimenting with how scent changed throughout the space; we obsessed over lighting levels, music, textures, and the rhythm of a guest’ s experience. Those aren’ t things you can simply write into an operations manual: They’ re learned through repetition and intention, then passed down person to person.

Hospitality has always been about creating a feeling, and feelings are built through thousands of seemingly minor moments.

GROWING UP AND OUT The Brooklyn property had a ripple effect, leading to expansion in Nashville, then the Catskills and finally Denver. We even expanded to our

first standalone bar concept in downtown Nashville— Urban Cowboy Bar. All these properties home in on quintessential Americana nostalgia, blending rustic luxury, vintage and soulful design.

I am fascinated by the way hospitality brands have the freedom to design not just spaces but experiences.

40 hotelsmag. com Oct / Nov 2026