The most replicated myth about the Hotelier is that the concerts take place in a dry swimming pool in a space that used to be a hotel. That wasn't one of the many past lives of this ground floor, although a ramp leading to an open space painted blue could give rise to that interpretation. The ramp is due to a previous occupation by a motorbike garage. The blue colour was Paula Lopes' first intervention when she moved into the space in 2016. In that blank space, full of possibilities, Paula's partner suggested she build a swimming pool there, so she could learn to swim. ‘Jeez, no way’ was the exact wording of the owner's reaction because “it wasn't ecological at all”. The wall was then ironically painted blue, alluding to a dry swimming pool. After all, every good hotel boasts a swimming pool. Nearby is the lift, also fake, opening onto a bathroom. Both interventions hint at the irony that is very present in this and other projects that gravitate around Hotelier.

The move to the new space was taking place while Miss'Opo was closing - Paula Lopes had been running this restaurant in the heart of Baixa since 2011. ‘At the time, there was no tourism,’ she recalls. ‘I remember that in the first year we even closed in August, but the following year August was already the busiest month.’ However, that wasn't at all what Paula was looking for: ‘There's a lot of disrespect from tourists towards those who live there. By 2020, I'd had enough, so I closed the restaurant. I think the area is a bit better now, but maybe that's also because I don't set foot in Baixa anymore (laughs).’

Hotelier began before this escape, in 2016, initially as Paula Lopes' work studio. That role hasn't been lost, but over the years more and more layers have been added. There have been a few concerts, more out of carolice and a desire to publicise what she likes, and never as a business model. Between periods of confinement, musicians Pedro Melo Alves and Inês Pereira proposed to programme some improvised concerts there, a music cycle entitled ‘Nada na Piscina’. ‘I thought it was spectacular, and from then on I started programming music.’ This grasping and doing is present in Paula Lopes' method, which she says is “in constant search”. Therefore, it is also present in Hotelier's profile.

When the opportunity arose for this space to be a collection point for the Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit) project, Paula set about creating ‘Buchas às sefresas’, using fruit and vegetables for her dishes. Adding to the challenge, she also decided to make vegan recipes, even though she personally doesn't follow this dietary restriction: ‘Everything I do is improvised, by intuition. I never follow recipes’. At the entrance, you can also see some clothes on display. There are second-hand pieces, but also some pieces designed and built by herself, such as blankets converted into jackets - baptised as ‘cossacks’ - and a more recent model, a kind of waistcoat she calls a ‘jack’. At the same entrance, you can find a neon installation in a circle - the shape refers to the name ‘Círculo Constante’ (Constant Circle), a web space that sought to aggregate all these projects and more. But it's appropriate that the materialisation of this circle is now at the entrance to a space that seems designed for circularity, for loops in which those who come leave a little of themselves in the next cycle.

The dry pool continues to be filled with sound waves with the ‘Concerts at the Pool’ - programmed by Paula Lopes, but featuring names such as Paulo Vinhas and Carlos Milhazes, from Matéria Prima, or Francisco Pedro Oliveira from Sonoscopia. The ambient music section ‘Cloro’ is almost always curated by Louis Wilkinson or João Soares. And these are waves that reverberate: ‘People have told me they've heard of Hotelier in Brussels, Berlin, Italy, Argentina and other corners of the world. I feel that this shows that people feel comfortable here.’