030: No Phone, No OTAs, No VC Time Horizons: Can Unplugged's Digital Detox Cabins Actually Scale? | Hector Hughes
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What sparked Hector Hughes to create Unplugged’s digital‑detox cabins?
That was a really the watershed moment. But I I came back from that and and quit my job a week later to do unplugged. The important point there is simplicity and making it easier for people to spread your message. You know, I went to stay at a startup that locks your phone in the box in a cabin in the countryside. Easy. If we want people to come and lock their phones away, then we need them to not just think of this as another accommodation. And as soon as you go on to OTAs, it's just it just becomes another accommodation because those platforms, that's what they're selling. We need to be talked about. We need to make people feel something. That is the whole game because it's not scalable if you can't be remarkable.
You are listening to STR Global Unlocked, brought to you by AGL Atelier, the show where I speak with the leaders shaping short-term rentals worldwide. I am Simon Lehman and after two decades buying, selling, advising and investing, I've built a network that spans continents and categories. This podcast brings that network to you. Real conversations, global insight, no PR fluff. Let's get started. What if the future of hospitality is not more scale? Not more distribution. not more dynamic pricing. But less noise. What if technology's greatest contribution to travel is helping people disconnect. What happens when you build a direct-to-consumer hospitality brand in a world dominated by OTAs? Today I'm joined by Hector Hughes, co-founder of Ontario.
Unplugged has built one of the most distinctive cabin brands in the UK, offering off-grid, tech-free days designed for digital detox and mental reset. But beyond the cabins themselves, what's fascinated me is the brand conviction. Unplugged has chosen direct distribution. They've leaned heavily into community and they've built something that feels more like a movement than a market. Hector, it's a huge honor to have you on the show today.
Simon, the pleasure is mine.
There's a quick rapid fire here. So I uh I want very short answers. I give you literally two words and what comes like what is the most obvious, the strongest for you. You call that out. Right. OTA partner or distraction? Distraction. Direct booking, essential or optional.
Central.
Ай, опортуні о трет.
Chinese.
Biggest myth about building a hospitality brand.
You have to do whatever one else does.
In ten years is unplugged bigger or deeper?
Bigger and deeper.
Yeah, that was uh an obvious one. When we first met and talked about unplugged the the biggest urge that I had is to use your product immediately. Having three children at home with mobile devices and everything else. we have decided to make our kitchen digital free, which is a good starting point, but there's still a lot of work to do in the meantime. But let's talk about the idea behind Unplugged. Where did this come from and how did you start this?
I guess the inspiration for this came back in nineteen and three years before that I'd met my co-founder. So we were the first two employees at a tech startup, so iPad Till Systems, nothing like what we're doing now. And did that for three years, did the whole high growth, international expansion, a lot of fun, uh, a lot of great lessons learned, and was just living the classic busy London life.
Why did Unplugged decide to stay completely off OTAs and sell only direct?
I was flying around the world to set up these offices. Spending all day on my phone. And I just started to notice this real dissatisfaction with life, constantly distracted, looking for stimulation, whether it was going out or being on my phone or work or whatever it was. But the the theme was just this constant need for distraction. And I had this, I would say, growing resentment uh towards my phone and started to read a bit around the topic. There's a great book called Digital Minimum. By a guy called Cal Newport. So I read that early in 2019 and I'd be getting more into reading, meditation, so really starting to I think I was in hindsight just seeking some answers or seeking some respite. Anyway, I eventually uh
really ran myself into the grounds that summer, again just work, going out, all of these things.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
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