“A rare environment where you can slow down, connect, and leave clearer, more focused, and recharged than when you arrived. When I'm back in Spain, this is where I'll come home to.”
Travis Weeks
Resident · 90-day stay
Back to The Coliving Advisor
Case study
Savi Coliving. A villa in the mountains, a handful of people, real work.
Savi was built as a premium sober coliving space in the mountains near Valencia. It exists for remote workers, founders, creatives, and people in transition who wanted something more intentional than a shared flat with better photography.
12–14
Guests at a time
1–3 mo
Typical stay
100%
Sober environment
The brief
Build something serious, not another beige retreat.
Most coliving spaces try to be everything to everyone. Savi chose to be a clear, narrow thing. And let the rest sort itself out.
- Concept
- Sober coliving for founders, creatives, and people in transition.
- Location
- Mountains near Valencia, Spain.
- Stays
- 1–3 months, application-only.
- Rooms
- From €1,100 to €1,900 per month.
- Standards
- No alcohol. No distractions. Reviewed applications.
- Operating model
- Founder-led, with proper hospitality and operational rhythm.
The Diary
Ten moments from the building of Savi.
Not the reel. The decisions. Written from the founder chair, month by month, with the ones that hurt to make left in.
01 · March 2025
The two-week decision
Saw the villa. Ran the numbers on paper in a coffee shop the same afternoon. Walked away. Came back a week later after refusing to stop thinking about the shape of the long table. Signed the following week. A house is a decision, not a real-estate transaction.
02 · April 2025
The stance, on one page
Before a single euro of setup. Wrote the two sides: who this house is for, who it is not for. Tore up two drafts. Third one held. Sober, remote-first, non-party, ages roughly late twenties to early forties, founders and creatives. The lists ran the entire launch.
03 · May 2025
The build we did not do
The obvious move was a full renovation. Kitchen ripped out, walls painted, boutique bathrooms. Waited. Fixed the wiring and the plumbing. Left the aesthetic honest. Every euro not spent on paint stayed available for the mistakes we had not made yet.
04 · June 2025
The pre-launch waitlist
One post. One page. The stance in fifteen words. Told nobody. Watched who found it. Fourteen genuine enquiries in seven days. Turned four away in the first triage. Booked five for opening. Every one still a guest we would take again.
05 · July 2025
Opening night
Eleven people around the long table. Two guests refused the sober rule at check-in and were asked to find another place before the entree. That call, quietly and warmly, set the culture for every arrival after them. Nothing costs more than making the wrong exception on night one.
06 · August 2025
The refund we did not fight
First bad fit. A guest three days in, deeply unhappy. Refunded in full without argument. Sent them the number of a friend who ran a house better suited. They wrote a thank-you email a week later. That refund cost less than any Instagram ad and returned more.
07 · September 2025
The volunteer who saved the summer
One long-stay resident quietly took over the produce garden. Uninvited. Better at it than any hire we could have made. Made a version of the volunteer role a permanent part of the model. The best staff in this business are guests who cannot bring themselves to leave.
08 · October 2025
The 3am incident
One guest brought alcohol into the house against a rule they had signed and shared verbally. Woke the founder. Woke a neighbour. Ended the stay before sunrise, calmly, with the deposit returned. Community read the incident report at the next long-table breakfast. Never happened again.
09 · November 2025
The month with no marketing
Full anyway. Because month three of a well-built house is the first month referrals start doing more work than posts. That switch is worth more than every follower we have not chased.
10 · January 2026
The Worldpackers award. The other project.
The award for La Casa del Viento came through. A different project, a different life stage. The letter arrived on a rainy morning at Savi and was pinned above the coffee machine before lunch. Every year, every project, layered on top of the last one. That is the whole model.
Inside the house
Rooms, terraces, work and food. Built around focus and community.
What Savi proved
People do not just buy a room.
They buy the feeling of being in the right place, with the right people, at the right time in their life.
A clear concept, a high standard for who gets accepted, and a non-party house culture turned a stretch of Spanish mountainside into a brand people care about. And a business that holds up commercially.
Every part of The Coliving Advisor’s practice comes from running this. Not theorising about it.
What guests say
“I've come across many co-working and co-living spaces through my work. Savi, with its sober concept, is truly something very special. A place that leaves a lasting impression.”
Saskia Rehhahn
Hospitality professional
“I genuinely couldn't have found a better co-living spot in Valencia. The location is incredible. The community is warm. The standard of hosting is on another level.”
Devinn
Resident · Google Local Guide
Track record
Other projects across 20 years.
The advisory is built on 20 years of operator-side work. Kitchens, restaurants, hotels, rural eco-properties, retreat centres. Some founded. Some opened. Some worked on as part of the team. A few worth naming:
La Bocana
Restaurant · Formentera
Opened and ran the kitchen. One of the first restaurants on Formentera to take ingredient sourcing and ambience seriously without becoming a tourist trap.
Casas de Benali
Rural eco hotel · Spain
Worked on the operating team during the eco hotel chapter. Front-of-house, hospitality systems, guest experience. Has since pivoted to a corporate offsite retreat centre under its current ownership.
La Casa del Viento
Founded · Awarded · Spain
Founded by Steve and operated as an eco-conscious retreat in rural Spain. Awarded the Worldpackers Sustainable Development Goals prize in 2025. Passed on shortly after. Steve handed the project on to focus fully on Savi, which became an overnight success.
Savi Coliving
Sober coliving · Sierra Calderona, Valencia
Founded and operating today. The premium sober coliving that proves what the advisory teaches. The full case study above.
Want this kind of clarity for your property?
Steve works with a small number of serious owners and founders each year. If your property has real commercial potential, this is the conversation to have.
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