How the French family behind Club Med is reimagining urban hotels with Mama Shelter

The French family behind Club Med, the ubiquitous all-inclusive vacation resorts, has a growing hospitality venture that doesn't involve ski slopes or seashores, but rather cityscapes and skylines.

Welcome to Mama Shelter, a chain of budget boutique hotels that borrows some of what worked on snow and sand and applied it to hipster havens in eight cities—four in France, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, and, most recently, Belgrade and Prague.

To understand Mama Shelter is to first know the French family behind it—the Triganos, whose late patriarch, Gilbert, cofounded Club Méditerranée with Gerard Blitz in the 1950s. The inaugural tents on the beach eventually became Polynesian-inspired villages complete with buffet meals, open bars, organized activities, and nightly entertainment. Then there were the teams of Gentils Organisateurs(think Julie McCoy, your cruise director) eager to teach sports to children or dancing to adults.