Grupo Habita has opened The Hollander, a new concept hostel in Chicago where guests can check-out their fellow travellers on social media before they check-in.

The Hollander sits beside the Mexican hotel brand’s other Chicago outpost, The Robey, in between the Windy City’s Bucktown and Wicker Park neighbourhoods. It features 66 beds, spread across 20 rooms.

‘We like to describe it as a social stay — a place where social media becomes physical,’ says Grupo Habita’s founder Carlos Carlos Couturier. ‘You can share your Instagram account when booking, share a room with other guests, and share the hostel’s social spaces – a café, bar, bike rental shop and laundry room – with locals.’

The Hollander – which takes over the 1905 Fireproof Warehouse – blurs the line between hostel and hotel. Beds inside its 8 shared rooms start from $45, while private rooms start from $165 per night.

Guests booking a Social Stay room have the option to share their Instagram profile and images with fellow guests, to foster a sense of community.

French studios Ciguë and Delordinaire were enlisted to transform the five-storey structure, which has a bar and cafe from Metric Coffee, a Social Room for events and meet-ups and an on-site bike shop by Banker Supply Co. Public spaces feature raw walls, exposed steel and concrete beams, and mid-century style furniture.

Read next: Grupo Habita opens a hotel in Chicago’s Coyote Building