Entrepreneurs José Manuel Quintana and Sergio Celis, with their three hotels (two in Polanco, Mexico City, and another in Oaxaca capital), have already created what could be defined as “Pug Seal style”: cozy environments where the art, close and impeccable service and, above all, the feeling of being at home. Now they transfer that spirit to their most ambitious project: a hotel/village on a paradisiacal beach in Mazunte, at the foot of the Pacific.
What makes the Pug Seal special? No matter how good a hotel is, you always end up missing your house, your home. But this does not happen in your hotels.
Pug Seal was born from our experience: we traveled to incredible places, but we had no place to stay well, and I mean WELL with capital letters. Bring that feeling of comfort that only your home gives you to special destinations, even if they are much further away. We started in Mexico City, which is so big, but where you still want to feel pampered in the place where you stay. And that is based on one thing: attention to the guest, focused on making them feel at home.
And how is something like this achieved?
It is made up of several points. To begin with, we are “people taking care of people.” And we rely on Chavelier’s definition of hospitality, as “a great soul that cares for the entire universe through the ties of humanity.” And this great soul, in the case of the Pug Seal, is the one that takes care of its entire universe, not only its properties, but above all its guests and its employees, in short: the people, who are those bonds of humanity. We are people with people, that’s the main thing.
That you include employees in that equation is a plus point, and not so common to hear from entrepreneurial businessmen.
We care a lot about our employees, because the work experience must be really good. We even worry about the work experience before the guest experience, because that way the guest experience will be familiar.
And how do you take care of that experience for your employees?
We give them tools, training and motivation, apart from, of course, a fair salary. The day-to-day life of a job can be two ways: stressful or rewarding. And that depends on how the problems are treated and resolved. If in an organization it is not spoken, it is not expressed and it is repressed, it is a temporary bomb for the employee. But if you solve them with dialogue, training and tools, everything flows. And in this way, employees take guest well-being as their own objective, they assume it that way, not as something of the company. And that’s how the guest stays with Pug Seal, and repeats, and recommends it. It is a virtuous circle from which this warmth emerges, at the same time, with great quality.
What do you ask of an employee, apart from their training?
We have about 80 employees. And in interviews, what predominates is the personal: they must have a Pug Seal character. We promote development, always starting from a very homogeneous salary base: everyone earns the same from the start because everyone is important: room staff, kitchen staff… And from there, we develop them. If someone is tired of having been in reception for a few years, and wants to get into the more gastronomic part, we will pay for a cooking course. We focus a lot on personal development. That’s why we have very little turnover. That generates values, and it is very important for us. That’s why when we open a new Pug Seal, we move half the staff there. So that they continue with the same philosophy and share it with the new members.
Speaking of new openings: your next big project is in Mazunte. Until now, Pug Seal was built in emblematic buildings, but this is going to be a completely new construction, at the foot of the Pacific.
We maintain the same spirit. We don’t believe that a hotel should be a huge building full of corridors from which you enter the rooms. That is why we have based the Mazunte project on houses. In our hotels in Mexico City we have strongly believed in the importance of a garden, a terrace, a dining room, a place to have breakfast… the elements that make up a home. We have had proposals to build hotels in large buildings and we never accepted them. There’s no way that could have the warmth of the Pug Seal.
But the Mazunte hotel will have 43 rooms. You had never conceived a hotel this big. How will you ensure that it maintains that homely feel that is already a Pug Seal trademark?
Instead of planning a high-rise, we bought five acres. To give a village feeling. And so, they are small modules. So that they make you feel like you are in a small town, like you are part of a community. The Pug Seal is the most important thing: it doesn’t matter if you are in a small building in Mexico City, or in a beach village in Mazunte. Whatever the format, we are a hospitality company, more than a hotel company.
What will the common spaces of that hotel be like?
There will be a backbone element, the pool. And all the villas surround it, as if it were a small lake, we call it “lake-pool”, but with the particularity that it has branches towards each room, with its own vegetation, so that you also have your private pool. But also common places like a library, a living room…
That beach where you are going to install the hotel is an exuberant natural environment. I assume you have planned for it to have minimal impact.
Of the 22 hectares we have, we are only going to build on 30%. That is very low density. We have avoided high rises, there will be no buildings. And as for natural resources, we will have solar panels, but above all, we want the use of air conditioning to be very little necessary. That is why we have designed these villas to be very cool, with a double roof with vegetation, which considerably reduces the heating of each property. We also have water from the wells we have on the property, which we will undergo a purification process using filters, and the drainage will be through biodigesters, so that they collect rainwater, gray water and black water, which will be treated. We will use resources intelligently, using vegetation, and that freshness always comes from natural shadows.
And as for the communities that live there?
We still cannot define what their true need is, but our idea is to promote, once we are there, support what they need. It is communal land, not private property. By decree, these lands were given to them, and the land belongs to the towns that work it, with an important indigenous burden. And with its own culture. That’s the challenge. We have a power of use granted by the community, and the only requirement they place on us is that the community goes ahead. So we have to be very aligned with them. Not only to what they need, but even to improve what they ask of us, which is where we want to go. Schools, workshops, scholarships, employing them in jobs… Everything will come when we talk to them, because we must be very respectful.
And why Mazunte?
One of the things that define Pug Seal is the location. It always has a meaning, it is not coincidental. We saw that in Mazunte there are still many things to do, in the surroundings. The hotels we have in Oaxaca or Mexico City are relatively close to everything interesting in the city. Here we have an incredible space, and a magical little town next door, and many more towns in paradisiacal settings very close by. We want to promote visits to San Agustinillo, Zipolite… to expand economic activity to the rest of the communities.
Art is also a very important element in Pug Seal. How is it going to be translated into Mazunte?
We try to take art to a deeper level, which involves unique pieces for each place, that has been an evolution throughout the history of Pug Seal, and we also want to bring that to Mazunte. I have already spoken with Rufina Tamayo and these Oaxacan women, whose works are the colors of the culture of Oaxaca. All this generates a very unique, unrepeatable place, alien to fashions and trends. A timeless space. The aesthetic, the balanced and balanced is not for us. We want more aesthetically natural, less perfect environments.
And what will inspire your design and art?
Above all nature, and also local culture. And that the furniture is not purchased, but designed for each place, specifically. Because everything that is really new, that you have never seen before, is what really surprises.
That area is not yet overcrowded by tourism. How are you going to maintain that spirit of a secluded, quiet place?
It is a one kilometer beach, a very large space, and although all the plots have already been sold, we would like to inspire the people around us with our way of doing things, respecting nature and the environment, without overwhelming it. We are already an inspiration for other hoteliers, designers, etc., with our Polanco properties, there is already what is called “Pug Seal style.” Regarding how to treat new developments in areas very close to nature, we also want to be a reference of respect for the environment.
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