For the Love of Hospitality

Tourism has long been part of the lifeblood of the Central Coast, but even more people are discovering and falling in love with the region for the first time — a credit to the wining and dining scene that keeps getting better and better, as well as the expanded diversity of compelling hotel options for travelers to check into. One local hotelier believes it’s more than that. “I feel like this is just the beginning of a whole new phase for this area,” said Kimberly Walker, co-founder and co-owner of Nomada Hotel Group.

Over lunch at Nella in Los Olivos, Walker filled me in on Nomada’s signature approach to hospitality and some exciting new projects in the works, spearheaded in collaboration with her business and life partner, Mike Kyle. Their Central Coast–rooted company has been quietly expanding its footprint since embarking upon its first hotel project in 2012, the Granada Hotel & Bistro in downtown San Luis Obispo. Walker’s passion for hospitality, curating experiences, and creating a space for human connection through travel shines through — whether she’s talking about her favorite hotels around the world, what makes the Central Coast so special, or how they choose projects.

Walker and Kyle operated the Granada for seven or eight years before even thinking about another hotel. “We got so excited about the Skyview property because we loved Los Alamos so much, going down there and just spending the day with that incredible hospitality.” When they found the Skyview project, they knew it was the next step. “We fell in love with the building,” she said.

That ended up becoming the template for Nomada’s development process. “We don’t have goals of owning a certain number of properties. It really always starts with falling in love with a building, which sometimes is a dilapidated building in a very bad state! And then the idea of us contributing to its longevity and creating its next best chapter — that’s what drives our growth,” said Walker.

Skyview was followed by Hotel Ynez, situated where Solvang borders Santa Ynez. The former Meadowlark Inn property had been on the market for a while because the previous owner, Brigitte Guehr, wanted the hotel to end up in good hands. “It was her life and business; it was very important to her to sell it to people who she thought were going to take care of it,” Walker shared. She was drawn to the property’s tranquil garden courtyard and used that sensibility to inform the hotel’s design to cultivate a restful place.

When I asked if there’s a notable difference between Hotel Ynez and Skyview clientele, Walker noted that Hotel Ynez attracts guests wanting to go there to just chill. “That same person will then go to Skyview on a different trip, looking for something with more energy and more of an F&B experience. Somewhere that has a nice pool where people are more social. And that same guest will also go to Granada when they are looking for an experience in S.L.O. — when they are wanting to go mountain biking, hiking, or surfing, and wanting to stay in more of an urban intimate hotel.”

Fans of those properties now have a few new reasons to start planning trips to Paso Robles wine country. Farmhouse Paso opened its doors to guests in early May, with 26 individual cottages. “It’s right downtown; the layout is very cool,” Walker enthused. Similar to Hotel Ynez, the previous owners had run it for decades and were ready to move on. “He reached out to Mike, having known him for years being local, and asked if he was interested,” she said. “We had just bought the River Lodge, which is also in Paso, right at the base of wine country. … We were getting ready to start working on that, and then this came along, and we just decided to do two projects at once, which is kind of challenging!”

River Lodge is still a work in progress, with an anticipated fall 2023 opening. Nomada is also breathing new life into the Pozo Saloon, located 17 miles east of Santa Margarita. “Pozo is such an incredible place, but there’s no place to stay,” Walker explained. In addition to restoring the historic landmark saloon, they plan to introduce vintage trailer-style lodging as a modern nod to the 1880s-era stagecoaches and ramadas (simple canvas shelters rented out to travelers back in the day).

Five years in the making for Nomada’s ownership to purchase the property, the Pozo project is a true labor of love. “In a way, [Pozo Saloon] is so much more difficult because so many people have such high expectations, and they have really important memories and moments we don’t want to mess with — while also making sure the building is going to be there for another 200 years.”

That thoughtful, respectful approach has contributed to Nomada’s success creating memorable destinations. When asked to define their ethos, Walker said the “love of strangers” is their mantra, recounting a story of a conversation with a cab driver in Israel who told her the word hospitality stems from a Hebrew word that means “the love of strangers.” And while she enjoys curating the design, art, music, and culinary components of their projects, it’s “sincerity of service” that makes guests return again and again. She sees repeat business as the biggest compliment. “At the end of the day, the most important part is how our staff makes the guest feel. And that is really the key to doing hospitality well.”

With the opening of Farmhouse, Nomada employs around 130 Central Coast residents. “Success for me is measured by the fact that I go to bed every single night and I cannot wait to wake up in the morning,” Walker reflected. “I am so excited to go and spend that next day with our teams … the people we work with, the people that make up Nomada and all the properties — they’re just incredibly passionate, professional, awesome people, and that really keeps me excited. Also, the love for the industry. I can’t imagine doing something like this without loving the team that you work with because it’s such a collaborative art form.”

See nomadahotelgroup.com.