A hybrid hotel/hostel in Paris

PARIS—What happens when you take the best features of boutique hotels and youth hostels, and put them under one roof?

Mama Shelter, which opened in October in Paris, France, is fundamentally, a new lodging concept, developed by the Trigano family, founders of Club Med.

Mama Shelter is a hybrid between a boutique hotel and a youth hostel, with an affordable price point of 79 euros—a viable alternative for travellers, considering the current economic climate.

The hotel targets an edgier audience, and is purposely situated in an upcoming Parisian neighborhood, the 20th District (arrondissement).

The 20th arrondissement is described in parisbynumbers.com as “a working class but increasingly yuppified district on the eastern-most border of the city. It incorporates the immigrant communities in the district of Belleville—a quarter that now combines its North African and Eastern influences into a kind of scruffy urban chic.”

The designs for Mama Shelter, by renowned designer Philippe Starck, include a lobby and walls made from chalkboard so guests can scribble at will, mimicking the graffiti that covered the parking garage the hotel was converted from.

Forums are held by scholars, poets, and politicians for guests.