Uncommon Hospitality, known for its unique and immersive travel experiences, has set a new bar in luxury hospitality with its brand new Longfellow Hotel in Portland, Maine’s historic West End. Its debut marks the first independent, full-service hotel launch in Portland in over two decades.
This family-owned, Maine-based group excels in crafting bespoke boutique hotels that capture the essence of their locales. The Longfellow, their latest masterpiece, offers 48 beautifully designed rooms, a pioneering wellness spa, and exceptional dining.
We sat down with Tony DeLois, Co-Founder and COO of Uncommon Hospitality, to explore the meticulous vision and attention to detail behind the Longfellow Hotel. DeLois shared insights on how the hotel embodies Portland’s spirit, celebrates the legacy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and sets a new standard for eco-conscious luxury hospitality.
Longfellow Hotel’s lobby. (Photos courtesy Carley Rudd Photography)
What was the vision behind bringing the Longfellow Hotel to life, and how does it differentiate from other boutique hotels in Portland and your collection of properties in Maine?
Having been born and raised in Maine, we felt passionate about continuing to elevate the hospitality offering in Portland through a focus on design and holistic well-being. This is also the first full-service, independent hotel to open in the city in two decades, so there’s been a tangible excitement surrounding the opening. All of our properties in Portland and Ogunquit really reflect the history and character of their home cities, but The Longfellow is certainly our most high-end offering. Longfellow was also our first ground-up project where we were able to oversee all the details with both interior and exterior design.
How does the Longfellow Hotel encapsulate the spirit and culture of Portland in its hospitality approach? How did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s legacy and the natural beauty of the New England coast influence the hotel’s aesthetic?
The Longfellow echoes Portland’s proud independent spirit and embodies the entrepreneurial ethos of our neighboring small businesses. We incorporated as many locally-owned brands as possible to really create a community-minded hotel experience. In terms of design, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow mused on Maine’s extremes, from cold, gray winters to the amazing New England summers; we wanted the hotel to reflect the simplistic beauty of nature, offering a space that’s relaxed yet elegant, and modern yet timeless.
Can you describe the unique wellness and culinary experiences that guests can expect at the Longfellow Hotel?
We’re looking at wellness as an entirely 360° experience, infiltrating every aspect of the hotel. For the guest rooms, we consulted with Sleep Wise Consulting and determined how to implement as many recommendations as possible to provide our guests with an environment most conducive to sleep. We are using Mattress Concierge for our mattresses, and Loftie alarm clocks, which can provide customized gentle wake-ups, guided meditations, and white, black, brown and even pink noise. One of the biggest suggestions we are implementing is blocking out all the indicator lights from smoke detectors, TVs and HVAC units. We also offer enhancements like our “Sleep Tight Experience,” which includes June Nightcap sleep gummies and botanical oil rollers to promote restorative sleep.
Astraea’s Mindful Dreams Massage is the ultimate sleep-focused experience, and even our bar menu at Five of Clubs features ‘functional cocktails,’ which highlight ingredients with multiple benefits; for example, tart cherry juice contains tryptophan and melatonin which help promote regular sleep, so Five of Clubs incorporated it in the Amarelle. It’s important for us to recognize that wellness is a completely subjective experience, and for some, simply booking a weekend at a really nice, luxury hotel where they will be taken care of is enough to fill one’s cup.
A look at the hotel’s onsite spa.
The hotel emphasizes eco-conscious practices. Can you elaborate on some of the sustainable initiatives implemented at the Longfellow?
As a hotel rooted in the idea of Maine’s natural beauty, it was so important for us to open a hotel that betters its environment in as many ways as possible. Our most challenging initiative is no single-use plastic in any purchase for the hotel. It was a labor of love to find all the right amenities to offer a seamless, sustainable guest experience, like locally-made, refillable in-room carafes, real keys instead of plastic electromagnetic cards, and bamboo- or recycled-packaging disposable amenities. We even spent a full year searching for a tea partner that didn’t use any plastics in their shipping or packaging and ultimately landed on Grace Farms, an amazing woman-led brand.
From a building standpoint, we invested in modern, sustainable efficiencies including all-electric appliances in the kitchen, as well as a strong guest room thermal envelope, which minimizes heat loss from the interior to the exterior, quite important for Maine winters. We also have seven car charging stations and our guests can request shuttle service to and from downtown Portland in our fully electric house car.
A guest room at The Longfellow Hotel.
What are your goals for the Longfellow Hotel and your entire hotel collection? How do you hope to continue raising the bar for luxury hospitality in Maine?
The positive response to The Longfellow has been enlightening, affirming Maine’s readiness for thoughtful hospitality projects. Over the past 12 years, we’ve seen renewed interest from savvy, affluent travelers, and as the first Small Luxury Hotels of the World property in the state, we believe The Longfellow is just the tip of the iceberg for capturing this audience. We are already working on our next hotel projects throughout the state, and are excited to continue raising the bar for luxury hospitality in Maine.
We know it’s very trendy right now, and we don’t really like doing things to be on trend, but we are aiming to bring wellness into all of our portfolio. We really want to push the envelope, to see how we can provide a restorative experience for our guests as well as our environment and community.
For more information or to book a stay at The Longfellow, call 207.800.3004, or visit LongfellowHotel.com. News and updates are also available on Instagram @longfellowhotel, @astraeawellnessspa, @fiveofclubsmaine and @twinflowercafe.
