Portrait of Raquel Zanchet

ABOUT

Almost thirty years of hotel product

Since 1997, across the Amazon, the Pantanal, the Cerrado and Bahia, from concept to operation.

Raquel Zanchet works with a team of creative, multidisciplinary professionals who support every area of putting a project in place. With a contemporary outlook, she develops projects that have a positive effect on the environment and on cultural and architectural preservation, using restoration techniques such as retrofit, which means bringing existing structures up to date without stripping their character.

Track record

  1. 1997

    Jardim da Amazônia Lodge

    Conception and implementation of the lodge, in the southern Amazon, in São José do Rio Claro, Mato Grosso. In operation ever since.

  2. 1999

    Mato Grosso, 3 Ecosystems route

    Took part in setting up a pioneering programme connecting the Pantanal, the Cerrado and the Amazon, in collaboration with André von Thurnoy, of Pantanal Explorer.

  3. 2007

    Zank Hotel Boutique, Salvador

    Co-founder of the property: retrofit of an early twentieth-century townhouse in Rio Vermelho into a twenty-key boutique hotel, opened in 2007. Architecture by Marlem Vilela, interior design by Judith Pottecher.

  4. 2010

    New York Times

    Zank Hotel is featured in the paper's Travel section.

  5. 2011

    Casa Claudia Award

    Interior Design Award in the Hotels category, from Casa Claudia magazine.

  6. 2022

    Jardim da Amazônia Research Station

    Involved in creating the station, an initiative led by Instituto Ecótono with UFMT, UNEMAT, the University of Salford, the Brazilian Primatology Society and ICMBio.

How the work is put together

The team is multidisciplinary and assembled per project, working directly with architecture, branding, commercial and the hotel operation. That keeps a single reading of the product from concept through to opening, rather than handing the project on at every stage.

Creative partnerships

Alongside the properties there is a line of collaborations with artists, fashion designers and photographers who turn the destination into content. They are the basis of the guest experience work, and they are gathered on the Collab page.

Tell us the type of property, how many keys, what stage it is at and the expected opening date. The conversation starts further along.

Discuss a project