Skift Take
These Missouri hotel innovators asked themselves: What should thoughtful, modern hospitality look like in the Ozarks? The verdict is still out on their just-opened boutique hotel. But their approach offers a peak into current trends in design thinking.
The Ozarks may have a branding problem. Built up in the '80s and '90s with big hotel chains and arguably kitschy attractions, Branson has garnered a reputation among some as "the Las Vegas of the Midwest” — just more family-friendly. But the team behind The Ozarker Lodge in Branson, Missouri, which opened June 30, has some fresh ideas.
“The Ozarks isn’t hillbilly country,” said Jeremy Wells, a partner at Longitude Design, the Springfield, Missouri-based consultancy behind the boutique hotel. “It’s not just all hokey, cheesy stuff."
That’s why Wells, along with his business partner Dustin Myers at Longitude, decided to jump into hotel ownership.
“We noticed that there was a lack of unique, modern, and design-forward lodging options in the Ozarks region, which is our backyard,” Myers said.
The duo joined fo