The Best New Sustainable Hotels in the World: 2021 Hot List

"“The people make the place.” It’s a sentiment a hotelier would usually express about a beloved, attentive staff. When Kinship Landing founder Bobby Mikulas says it though, that’s not what he’s talking about at all. Within its first months of opening, Kinship is already a true meeting place for both members of its Colorado Springs community and hotel guests, and it is facilitating the kinds of serendipitous moments between strangers that all but disappeared from hotel lobbies during 2020. At any given time, the population of the first floor is evenly split between guests and locals, more likely to be chatting over a hand pie than facedown in a laptop. The rooms embrace an everything-you-need-nothing-you-don’t ethos that Mikulas fell in love with during travels through Europe—built-in blond wood cubbies and shelves for stowing luggage and gear, sliding glass doors that open out toward the Garden of the Gods, and fiber optic internet that may be the fastest of any hotel in the country. And while the beds (including the bunks in the six hostel-style rooms) envelop you in a way that you might want to sleep until noon, the rest of the spartan private spaces nudge you downstairs to the greenhouse or outside to explore the nearby mountains. Kinship is a welcome addition to an increasingly energetic Colorado Springs, a city that has quietly amassed the largest growth of Millennials anywhere in the country over the last couple years. And the young families and adventurers you’ll meet milling around the hotel are a perfect encapsulation of a visit to the city. Rooms from $160. —Noah Kaufman" - CNT Editors