The hotel will have five or six of its 69 rooms and all its facilities available to guests, Bruce said. On Friday, a group of 20 individuals and the hotel's owners from the Maine Course Hospitality Group will arrive for cocktails and 20 rooms will be open for the remainder of the weekend, according to Bruce.
A soft opening, during which the hotel is not fully booked, is common due to the complexities of opening a hotel, Michael Hartson, the hotel's director of sales, explained. During a soft opening, hotel management and staff can make last-minute adjustments to the hotel's services so that guests have a positive first impression when the hotel opens fully, he said.
All rooms will be available beginning Feb. 21.
The hotel, located within walking distance of the Green, features a more modern design than other hotels in the area and resembles many of the W Hotels operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Bruce said. Comparable to hotels in metropolitan areas, the portico and sliding doors of Six South Street Hotel open into a contemporary lobby in which soft lighting, dark wood and a red-orange color scheme offset glass walls, black countertops and sleek furniture.
The hotel's design is "definitely contemporary," which differentiates it from the more traditional Hanover Inn, located on Main Street, Bruce said.
The designers of the hotel aimed to create a sense of openness, Bruce said. Instead of barriers, the lobby contains "pods" of seating designed to create a spacious and inclusive atmosphere, in which there is no visible separation between guests and hotel staff.
"We can come out from behind the desk and say hello or feed their dog a biscuit," Bruce said.
Downstairs, the hotel contains a cocktail lounge, media center and fitness room, as well as a restaurant, called Bistro 6, which can serve breakfast and dinner for up to 22 guests, according to Hartson. The hotel also has a 24-hour market located next to the lobby where guests can purchase beverages and snacks. Bistro 6's menu will start out small and will be "responsive" to the preferences and needs of guests, Hartson said.
"The menu will be an evolution of food and we will identify with the marketplace," he said.
Bistro 6 will not serve lunch in the interests of being a "good neighbor" avoiding competition with local businesses and restaurants, Hartson said. If a group of guests requests lunch, however, the hotel will accommodate them, according to Hartson.
Of the hotel's 69 rooms, 41 contain king beds and 28 have two queen beds. Each room is equipped with a television, refrigerator, iHome, desk and bathroom. The hotel offers valet parking and an underground parking garage. It is "pet-friendly" and the entire hotel offers wireless Internet service, Bruce said.
The hotel will also strive to be "eco-friendly" and reduce its carbon footprint by employing a geothermal heating system, Bruce said. Under this system, wells pull up water from deep underground to be used for heating and to control the overall temperature of the building.
Tom List, general manager of the Inn, said he is not concerned about directly competing with the hotel since he expects an increased demand for hotels in the area as the economy improves over the next several years. The relationship between the two hotels will likely be more of a "partnership" instead of a rivalry, List said.
"When we're full we'll send them business and when they're full they'll send business to us," he said.
The new hotel was originally supposed to open its doors to the public in November 2010 but delays pushed its opening back several months, Bruce said.
