The Social Hub Porto with “a thousand and one possible configurations” for events

# tags: Hospitality , Events

With flexible spaces for meetings and events, The Social Hub, a unit with a hybrid hotel model, has opened in the heart of Porto.

It is the first in Portugal and opened its doors on March 1, in Porto. The Social Hub has 310 rooms, nearly 450 square meters of flexible meeting and event space and more than 580 square meters of coworking space - spaces available for business travelers, students, tourists and locals.

As far as meetings and events are concerned, “we have a thousand and one possible configurations”, says Nuno Silva, general manager of The Social Hub Porto, speaking to Event Point. There are nearly 450 square meters of flexible spaces, including an auditorium with capacity for more than 250 people.

The spaces are suitable for different approaches, including the possibility of using various areas for different parts of an event. “For us, all the spaces can be used, we want them to be used. We don't just keep everything in boxes. In this room we only hold classroom meetings, in this room we only hold audience meetings, here we don't serve coffee breaks, because it's defined that coffee breaks are... We do the opposite,” explains Nuno Silva.

The events sector is a focus of the new project. “We really want to make a name for ourselves in the events market. We think we have a very differentiated product in terms of technological quality; in terms of comfort, our rooms - taking into account the capacities, which are not large, but are very comfortable - have fabulous natural light exposure, a spectacular location, additional services, such as parking, which give us a versatility, an attractiveness that I find interesting,” he says.

“Creating a better society as a whole”

In addition to meeting and event spaces, The Social Hub Porto has 310 rooms (271 four-star hotel rooms and 39 residential apartments with a maximum of two bedrooms) and around 580 square meters of coworking space, with capacity for almost 100 people.

There will be three dining areas: a restaurant, a rooftop cocktail bar with a panoramic pool and a café, inspired by Portuguese cuisine. The unit also has a patio and garden, which are open to the public, a store, a gym, a laundry room and a communal kitchen for student guests.

The Social Hub Porto began as a residence for students. Today, it offers four complementary products. “We've already grown, we've already evolved, we're already much more social, much more community, much more local, much more aggregators of talents, aggregators of wills, aggregators of different audiences. I think this is a totally differentiating element for us,” adds Nuno Silva.

The Social Hub announces that it will offer more than 200 experiences a year for guests and locals; a varied program, the result of partnerships with entities in the region. Among other activities, there will be cooking workshops, vintage markets, sporting events and cultural sessions with local artists.

“We want to reinforce our position as a value-add for the city and the community. Above all, the group's mission, its purpose, is to create a better society as a whole,” stresses Nuno Silva. Truly connect, deeply fun and get it done are the three promises of The Social Hub, “which we live by in our day-to-day work, in the organization, in the teams, in what we do”.

Promises that go hand in hand with B Corp certification, a status recently acquired by the hotel. “We're talking about community, sustainability, governance and staff,” says Nuno Silva, according to whom ‘the happiness of our employees is a determining factor’.

Porto has “very interesting arguments”

Founded in Amsterdam in 2012 by Charlie MacGregor, The Social Hub has arrived in Portugal, with Porto being the twentieth unit of the hybrid hotel brand. The investment is around 60 million euros and more than 30 new direct jobs have been created. The brand is already developing a second unit in the country, specifically in the Cascais area.

“Porto has a number of very interesting arguments,” stresses Nuno Silva, adding that the city is increasingly ‘on the world's lips’, has infrastructures, security, an inclusive community, hospitable people and diverse gastronomy. It is also an internationally awarded destination.

In this first year of operation, The Social Hub Porto intends to “make the brand known”, get closer to the community and work to make it attractive locally, using complementary services to accommodation, such as the coworking space, for example.