The Indy House - Holidays at Home

The Independente Collective opens new house in Lisbon

Wherever we go, it isn’t hard to find an accommodation place that claims its will to be a home. It’s equally easy, though, to conclude that most of them fail to do so. No matter how comfortable we feel, it is impossible to feel that those symmetrical, endless carpeted halls are actually home. Even if just for a few days. 

Although the Indy House, The Independente Collective group’s new venture, shares the same concept, it pioneers in that it is successful. Let’s break it down.

First of all, the building. This is not a rare phenomenon in Lisbon. Old palace turns shop, hotel, art gallery or the like. One thing is for sure, the original building is often depleted of everything that makes it unique because the narrow corridors, rooms built as if according to no plan whatsoever and many more characteristics of unpredictable old houses are not adequate to what investors want to build.

Unless, of course, that what you want to build is a house. This is where the Indy House enters the conversation. The required work having been done, the initial purpose of that Intendente palace was not hidden but, instead, given pride of place. 

Nothing was taken down. The reception area is accessed through a huge gate and once the paperwork is taken care of we can go on to the bedrooms wing.

There are 34 bedrooms across 5 floors. Considering they weren’t built to look the same, they are all incredibly unique, both in size and arrangement. Some come with unique details, such as a reading nook. There are also one and two-bedroom apartments on the last floor where the accommodation options broaden.  

There is a kitchen per every 7 rooms, where every morning breakfast is served from 7:30 am to noon. The idea is that you don’t have to wake up early just to enjoy the breakfast you have previously paid for. Out of context, these kitchens could be mistaken for the ones we have at home. Small and quite “real”, they invite those who gather there to engage in conversation before starting the day. 

The living room is equally cosy and it’s possible to picture the guests (or residents) gathering around not the fire but Netflix or reading a book in a chair. Outside there’s the garden, where some of the social happenings take place. Also, there’s a “happiest hour” every evening, where drinks are free for a while.

This house also has quite a funky decoration. The bidets on the staircase steps, for instance, might cause some of the most conservative, in-search-of-a-hotel like guests to wonder if they’re in the right place. Also, the wallpaper is known to have caused some intense reactions in the past. Each floor shares a wallpaper design, all based on the theme of tropical birds. As we have been told, flamingos are among the most controversial. 

No matter what they might say about the flamingos, though, we are sure The Indy House will be spoken of when it comes to Lisbon hospitality. Who knows, maybe The Indy has started a new trend in Lisbon, that of going on holiday and still staying home.