Our Habitas helped move luxury hospitality away from material abundance and toward programmed experience, community and emotional connection. Its phrase “Luxury for the Soul” describes a model in which music, wellness, art, adventure, food, learning and giving back form the architecture of the stay.
The Tulum Origin
The first Home opened in Tulum in 2016, using beach, jungle, communal programming and low-rise design to create an alternative to conventional luxury resorts.
Founder and Creative Origins
Ennismore identifies entrepreneur Oliver Ripley as founder. Habitas storytelling also gives Kfir Levy a central role in the design and manufacturing philosophy that helped turn immersive gatherings into permanent hospitality.
From Gathering to Hospitality
The strategic experiment was whether the emotional energy of a gathering could be reproduced in a hotel stay without turning the hotel into a festival.
Human Connection as Product
The central promise is connection: strangers become friends and friends become family. Communal spaces and programming are therefore not supplementary amenities but part of the commercial product.
Luxury for the Soul
The phrase challenges traditional luxury signals. Value lies in belonging, inspiration, discovery and memory rather than formal service theatre or conspicuous material excess.
Seven Pillars
Music, wellness, art, adventure, food, learning and giving back provide the framework through which each destination is programmed.
Programming as Brand Architecture
Rituals, performances, workshops, movement and shared experiences perform some of the work that architecture and formal service perform in conventional luxury hotels.
Music
Music creates social energy and remains closely connected to the brand’s origins in gatherings.
Wellness
Wellness is broad and experiential: movement, ritual, nature, mindfulness and restoration rather than only treatment rooms.
Art
Art connects local creative communities with guests and gives each Home a cultural layer beyond decoration.
Adventure
Desert, lagoon, jungle and coast are treated as environments to explore rather than passive views.
Food
Food is both hospitality and social infrastructure; shared meals help turn guests into a temporary community.
Learning
Cultural interpretation and workshops add an educational dimension without formalising the stay.
Giving Back
Our Habitas Rise is the global impact initiative focused on communities, culture and conservation.
A Home, Not a Hotel
Calling properties Homes supports the idea of temporary belonging and distinguishes the brand linguistically from conventional resorts.
Community Without Membership
Unlike private clubs, Habitas does not require a membership gate. Community is meant to emerge during the stay.
Small-Scale Social Luxury
Repeated encounters are essential to the model. If a property becomes too large or anonymous, the community promise becomes harder to deliver.
Tulum
Our Habitas Tulum remains the origin Home, where jungle meets the Caribbean and nature, wellness, music and connection define the stay.
Mexico as Origin Story
The official Mexico platform explicitly calls Mexico the brand’s origin story. Tulum and Bacalar currently anchor the Mexican journey.
Bacalar
Our Habitas Bacalar shifts the mood from Tulum’s beach-and-jungle energy toward a more restorative lagoon experience.
The Lagoon as the Main Event
At Bacalar, nature carries much of the emotional weight. The lagoon is the reason to travel, not merely a backdrop to resort infrastructure.
Mexico Journey
The brand encourages guests to combine Mexican Homes, turning the master brand into an itinerary as well as a property identity.
AlUla
Our Habitas AlUla proved the model could move beyond Mexico into Saudi Arabia’s desert, archaeological and cultural landscape.
A Living Museum
The official description frames AlUla as a living museum: geology, history and cultural programming replace the tropical vocabulary of Tulum.
Caravan AlUla
Caravan AlUla adds a lighter, more playful accommodation expression within the same destination.
The Caravan Concept
Caravan gives Habitas a second product language: expedition-like and informal while retaining communal programming.
Ras Abrouq
Our Habitas Ras Abrouq extends the brand to Qatar’s west coast, combining desert, sea and remoteness.
Caravan Agafay
Caravan Agafay places the lighter expedition concept in Morocco’s Agafay Desert near Marrakech.
The Middle East as Growth Engine
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE pipeline make the Middle East one of the brand’s principal growth geographies.
Caravan Hatta
Ennismore’s 2026 opening programme describes Caravan Hatta with 50 Airstreams, a Lake House, wellness rituals and curated dining.
Leyja
The current Habitas site lists Leyja Adventure, Leyja Oasis and Leyja Wellness in NEOM as forthcoming, potentially creating three differentiated products in one destination.
Todos Santos
Todos Santos is listed as coming soon and would extend the Mexican portfolio to the Pacific side of the country.
Portfolio Change
Ennismore described ten operating resorts across four continents in June 2024, including Atacama and Namibia. The current Habitas homepage foregrounds a smaller operating set plus pipeline. LHL therefore separates historical footprint from current official presentation.
Why Portfolio Dating Matters
Openings, closures, conversions and pipeline projects have changed quickly. An undated property count can therefore misrepresent the brand.
Ennismore 2024
In June 2024 Ennismore and Our Habitas announced a strategic partnership under which Ennismore would take over management and growth.
Why Ennismore Matters
Ennismore adds development reach, operating infrastructure, technology and distribution while Habitas contributes a founder-built experiential identity.
Founder-Built Inside a Larger Collective
The strategic promise is scale without homogenisation: Habitas can share infrastructure with Ennismore brands without becoming visually or culturally identical to them.
Immersive Resorts
Ennismore places Our Habitas within its Immersive Resorts category.
A Different Kind of Resort
Habitas creates immersion through programming, place and participation rather than giant pools, hundreds of rooms or extensive all-inclusive infrastructure.
Design and Manufacturing
Kfir Levy’s role is important because Habitas developed a modular design and manufacturing approach intended to support efficient development.
Modular Construction
The sustainability platform states that modular construction can reduce environmental impact and on-site work without compromising design integrity or guest experience.
Why Modularity Matters
Repeatable construction can accelerate expansion, but it also risks making destinations physically formulaic.
Local Adaptation
The strategic task is to keep the system repeatable while materials, landscape and programming remain locally specific.
Low-Rise Design
Low-rise rooms, pathways and communal buildings support an informal relationship with landscape and avoid monumental hotel forms.
The Room Is Not the Whole Product
The model depends on guests leaving their rooms and participating in the social and experiential life of the Home.
Communal Space
Restaurants, fire circles, pools, wellness areas and gathering spaces are designed to generate repeated encounters.
The Fire as Social Architecture
Simple evening rituals can create stronger community than a grand lobby when the brand is organised around participation.
Wellness Without Clinical Distance
Habitas generally emphasises presence, movement and connection rather than diagnostic medicine or clinical longevity.
Former Homes
Legacy brand and press materials reference properties including Santa Teresa, Hudson, Atacama and Namibia. Their historical relevance should not be confused with current operating status.
Sustainability as Decision Framework
Our Habitas states that sustainability influences materials, construction, operations and the causes it supports.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The brand states a commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
Single-Use Plastic
Our Habitas states a commitment to eliminating single-use plastic and notes recognition under The Oceanic Standard.
Carbon Offsetting
The sustainability platform describes a partnership with Cooperativo Ambio’s Scolel’te programme supporting reforestation.
Waste Management
Properties work with local organisations on waste classification, recycling and composting.
Our Habitas Rise
Rise is the umbrella impact initiative supporting local communities, culture and conservation.
The Sustainability Tension
Lower-impact construction and local programmes do not erase aviation, water, energy or development pressure in fragile destinations.
Service Philosophy
Service is informal and socially fluent rather than ceremonial. Staff must be able to host, connect and interpret.
Hosts Rather Than Functionaries
The strongest employee behaves like a host inside a temporary community, helping guests meet both the place and one another.
The Risk of Forced Community
Community cannot be manufactured mechanically. Guests seeking privacy may find highly programmed sociability intrusive.
The Risk of Lifestyle Cliché
Music, yoga, fire circles, natural materials and communal tables are now widely copied. Habitas must remain culturally specific enough to avoid becoming a generic bohemian-resort formula.
The Tulum Problem
Tulum helped create the brand but also demonstrates the risks of rapid lifestyle-tourism development: ecological pressure, infrastructure stress and aesthetic imitation.
From Tulum to Institutional Scale
The key strategic question is whether a concept born in a specific cultural moment can remain credible as Ennismore scales it globally.
Branded Residences
In 2025 Ennismore announced an Our Habitas branded-residence concept centred on wellness, community, programming, food and hospitality-led services.
Why Residences Fit
A brand built around belonging has a plausible residential extension because residents can participate repeatedly rather than only during short stays.
The Residential Risk
Permanent ownership can alter social chemistry: a temporary travel community and a homeowner community do not necessarily behave the same way.
Loyalty
Our Habitas has no standalone points-led loyalty DNA. It now sits inside Ennismore’s broader ecosystem, including Dis-loyalty, with participation and benefits subject to current programme terms.
Comparison with Aman
Aman uses privacy, architectural control and highly refined service to create sanctuary. Habitas uses community, programming and informal participation to create connection.
Comparison with Six Senses
Six Senses has deeper wellness and sustainability infrastructure and greater global scale. Habitas is more socially programmed and explicitly community-led.
Comparison with 1 Hotels
1 Hotels expresses sustainability through design, materials and operations. Habitas places greater weight on communal experience and immersive programming.
Comparison with Selina
Selina also built around community and nomadic lifestyle but targeted a broader and generally lower price spectrum. Habitas aims for a more curated resort interpretation.
Comparison with Soho House
Soho House builds community through membership and urban creative networks. Habitas builds temporary communities through destination stays without a private club gate.
Comparison with Explora
Explora makes guided exploration the central system and is less socially performative. Habitas offers more music, wellness and community programming but generally less expedition depth.
Comparison with Tierra
Tierra is more guide- and landscape-led, with a stronger lodge tradition. Habitas is more lifestyle-led and places greater weight on social energy.
Comparison with Awasi
Awasi defines luxury through private guide, private vehicle and ownership of time. Habitas almost reverses the logic: part of its value comes from shared moments with other guests.
The Advantage of the Model
Programming and community can generate emotional value disproportionate to room size or physical opulence.
The Development Advantage
Modular construction and Ennismore’s platform create potential for faster growth than highly bespoke lodge brands.
The Development Risk
Speed is dangerous for a brand whose credibility depends on authenticity. A Home that feels inserted rather than rooted weakens the promise.
The Middle East Test
AlUla, Ras Abrouq, Hatta and Leyja test whether Habitas can remain intimate and culturally credible inside large destination developments.
The Scale Test
The future depends on whether operational scale can coexist with the feeling that each Home is a discovered community rather than a rolled-out concept.
What the Model Does Not Solve
Community-led luxury does not automatically create authentic community, and sustainable design does not make long-haul resort travel impact-free. Modular construction can reduce on-site disruption but may encourage rapid replication. The model is vulnerable to lifestyle imitation, destination overdevelopment and guests who simply want privacy rather than participation. Ennismore gives Habitas powerful scale; the task is to ensure that scale does not consume the intimacy it is meant to distribute.
What Distinguishes Our Habitas
FOUNDED IN 2016 WITH TULUM AS THE ORIGIN HOME. “LUXURY FOR THE SOUL.” MUSIC, WELLNESS, ART, ADVENTURE, FOOD, LEARNING AND GIVING BACK AS THE PROGRAMMING PILLARS. COMMUNITY AND HUMAN CONNECTION AS THE CORE PRODUCT. MODULAR, LOWER-IMPACT DEVELOPMENT LANGUAGE. MEXICO, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR AND MOROCCO IN THE CURRENT OFFICIAL OPERATING PRESENTATION, WITH HATTA, TODOS SANTOS AND LEYJA IN THE PIPELINE. ENNISMORE TOOK OVER MANAGEMENT AND GROWTH IN 2024.
The Strategic Achievement
Our Habitas’ achievement is to make social connection a luxury proposition. It helped demonstrate that a resort could create desirability through programming, shared experience and emotional belonging rather than relying primarily on physical opulence.
The Hospitality Lesson
The Habitas lesson is that public space can be as important as private space. When the promise is human connection, the operator must design not only rooms but the conditions in which meaningful encounters can happen.
Editorial Note
LHL records the brand as Our Habitas, reflecting its current official identity. Because the portfolio has changed rapidly, current operating Homes are separated from legacy properties and announced pipeline rather than collapsed into one undated count.