Since 2003
Freedom, respect and audacity. Or in other words, fun, safe and provocative. These are the three pillars from which Axel Hotels was created as the first hotel chain for the LGBTQIA community in the world.
Everything started with a dream.
In 2003, Juan Julià founded Axel Hotel Barcelona: an open and cosmopolitan hotel, which appeared in an environment of dark rooms and closed closets. This was the first step of a project that arrived unreservedly, with a desire to change things.
We did not design a hotel to then add inclusive values. We were born that way, as a meeting place designed by and for LGBTQIA people, where there are rooms and one can sleep. Or do whatever one fancies.
Freedom has a place.
With the opening of Axel Hotel Buenos Aires in 2007, and just afterwards in Berlin, the company made the international leap and began an expansion process that would introduce its way of being and outlook to other parts of the world.
The response was amazing. So much so that to meet demand, we then had to open new hotels in Barcelona and Berlin, because the community asked us for more. We realised that we were not building hotels. We were building places without prejudice. Spaces where things happened. And above all, a family that grew year after year.
This isn't business, it's a revolution.
In 2013 our first beach hotel, Axel Beach Maspalomas, was created in Gran Canaria. After that, there were more and more openings in different cities in Spain, such as Ibiza, Madrid and San Sebastián.
In 2020 Axel Hotels crossed the pond again and opened the long-awaited Axel Beach Miami – South Beach. And shortly afterwards, in 2022, Telégrafo Axel Hotel La Habana.
Now it's time for Valencia, Bilbao, and soon Porto. But there are still many cities on our wish list. And we will continue growing for all people who feel different. Because in reality we form part of something much bigger.