Boutique hotel in downtown Madison boasts contactless check-in, historic charm

MADISON, Ind. (WDRB) -- A boutique hotel sitting right on East 2nd Street in downtown Madison combines the self-sufficiency of a short-term rental with the amenities of a hotel. Think of it as an invisible hotel, and it’s one of the first in all of Indiana.

Matt Chandler and his husband, Dan, heard the building was going up for sale and knew it had to be theirs. From there, The Chandler Hotel was born.

"You have the self-check-in," Matt Chandler said. "You will have a code generated that will match the front door and your guest room that is an individualized guest code that is secure access."

The 152-year-old building was a livery stable, a bottling plant and a printing warehouse for the Madison Courier newspaper. It sat vacant for decades until Matt and Dan scooped it up just over a year ago, and the remodeling began.

"We just really had a love for Madison," Matt Chandler said. "This community is thriving. We are loving the growth here. We think that Madison is really becoming a diverse community."

Each of the five bedrooms in The Chandler Hotel is unique. The couple wanted the hotel to be hyper-local, and it is: everything from the coffee in the rooms to soaps in the bathrooms.

"It’s really neat to see these properties being taken on one by one and really restored and made into something new for a new chapter of their life," said Andrew Forrester, executive director of Madison Tourism.

The Chandler Hotel has the only rooftop terrace in city, and hints of the 19th-century building’s past are everywhere. For example, one of the original doors was found onsite, restored and repurposed as a headboard.

"We really want people to see what this used to be and we want to be a part of that legacy," Matt Chandler said. "So that was really important to us."

They also kept the building's 100-year-old original crank elevator.

"You don’t see that anymore," Matt Chandler said. "You can’t go out and purchase a crank elevator unless you get it out of one of these buildings. We really wanted to just give a nod to what used to be here."

Room rates range from $135-225 per night, depending on the season. The hotel is scheduled to open in April.

To follow the hotel on Instagram, click here. You can also connect with the hotel on Facebook by clicking here.