For Lyon Porter and Jersey Banks, a career as hoteliers was accidental. But having the talent to execute a brand that draws communities together hasn't been.

In 2014, Urban Cowboy founders Porter and Banks opened The Urban Cowboy in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Urban Cowboy Brooklyn was Porter's first time designing a property for himself. Up until that point, he was designing for other developers. Porter's background is in residential brokerage and design, and Banks has held various bar and nightclub roles.

He and Banks both thought that the opening of the Brooklyn bed and breakfast was going to be low-key, and it would be a place for their friends to gather. Within six months, it garnered enough attention to inspire the couple to search for and open more properties.

"We kind of are accidental hoteliers. We opened a five-bedroom bed and breakfast in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, back when there wasn't a Brooklyn to every city in the world," he said. "It ended up in every glossy magazine in the world within six months. We [thought] 'there's something here.' It changed our lives. Everyone that came to stay with us, a lot of them became friends. Some of our best friends we've met as guests."

Several of those friends encouraged Porter and Banks to expand the brand into Nashville, Porter said.

The pair found the building they wanted to purchase for the next Urban Cowboy within their first hour in the city, he said.

The journey of growing the brand has included many "little serendipitous moments," he added.

"We've gone from our gut, seen what we've responded to and what we liked. The brand has always been a reflection of where we're at in our lives at the moment," he added.

The search for a Catskills location wasn't as quick, he said. That Urban Cowboy Lodge sits on 68 acres of land in Big Indian, New York, at the intersection of two rivers.

"We looked forever for the property," Porter said. "Most of the hotels there are on busy streets, on main highways, in towns. We didn't leave our place in New York City to go into a little town; we [wanted] to be in the middle of the wilderness. It's a true nature retreat."

The impetus for the Brooklyn property was a dream of Porter's to run a place that wasn't a bar, restaurant or coffee shop, and didn't require locals to have an invite. Though co-working spaces and private clubs have grown in popularity, he said that didn't really exist in 2014.

"In New York, that was really hard. I wanted to create a hub for our community," he said. "People would show up everyday. We created a real hub for that friend to swing by and say hi or meet other friends who were staying there or guests."

During the pandemic, the pair decided to close the Urban Cowboy Brooklyn to the public. Now called Cowboy Creative, the property functions as the flagship headquarters for their hotel management company and creative studio, as well as a space to host collaborative events with other creators.

The Urban Cowboy Hotels portfolio today consists of the 28-room and six-bedroom suite Urban Cowboy Lodge in the Catskills, the eight-room Urban Cowboy Nashville, The Dive Motel in Nashville with 23 rooms and the 18-room Urban Cowboy Denver that's currently under construction. The brand also has an independent bar concept in Nashville called Urban Cowboy Public House.

Porter said that each property's interior design will reflect its location. The Brooklyn property was industrial chic while the Urban Cowboy Nashville is in a Victorian mansion and includes a music parlor. The Urban Cowboy Lodge ties in the mountains, and the Dive reflects a 1970s-style motor inn.

"Each one of them has a romantic nostalgia for the past, with also the things that a traveler would want," he said.

Because Porter's background was in residential design, he had to exercise a different muscle for hospitality, he added.

He said he doesn't necessarily design guest rooms to appeal to the masses — there are no TVs or desks in most of the rooms, for example — but instead focuses on creating memorable stays.

Porter and Banks said they balance each other out through the design process.

"It's very much an experiential design that is meant to illicit an emotion," he said. "Jersey jokes that I should do set design because I care what it looks like, and she has to come in and be like, 'Where's the closet, where are people going to put their bags?'" he said. "I think that's kind of one of the reasons that we have been voted one of the most Instagrammable hotels and people do have these cinematic experiences. That's something we always find a lot of fun, is to create environments versus just hotels. I don't think that we build just straight hotels. I think we build immersive environments for people to stay in, play in, be inspired and leave with a memory."

Booking demand for Urban Cowboy's hotels varies across their markets, Porter said. In the Catskills, demand is still very high despite new hotel supply coming into the market.

"That's a testament for our crew up there. We're really proud of what we're doing there. Some [guests] are coming back for their sixth stay and we've been open three years. People come seasonally, [and] having people feel like it's their home away from home is a key to that," he said.

Nashville was among the first cities to reopen during pandemic restrictions. Because of that, guests likely have already been there a handful of times and are looking for other places to stay, Porter said.

"We're seeing a little bit different occupancy there. And the key for us is we only have so many rooms, so it's easier for us to fill our rooms. We can be a little bit more precious with the rates," he added. "For us, we want people to come back more than once. That's been a touchstone for us ... having repeat customers is the key to staying busy right now."

In the past few years, Porter and Banks have expanded the services that Cowboy Creative provides to beyond Urban Cowboy Hotels. The team just completed the design of another brand's hotel, Porter said, after getting several inquiries from other companies asking to utilize their design expertise.

"We've been designing spaces for residential, other people in hospitality," he added. "Cowboy Creative is not only our design and management company, but also a design company for other people as well."

Banks said she and Porter are always looking for more growth opportunities. Next, they'd be willing to take on a hotel with a bigger room count, she said.

"We're also having a lot of fun expanding the Public House, which is our bar concept that's in Nashville and started in Nashville. It's really fun to do a business that opens at a certain time and then closes. Doing hotels that are 24/7, nonstop, there's just so much that goes into servicing that model," she said.

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