Our Story
Planting the seeds of Harmony
At the heart of Harmony Projects lies a love story. Founders John and Susan met and fell in love on the beaches of Nosara. Then, together, they fell in love with the area with its stunning raw beauty, and its population of local ticos, eccentric expats, yogis and surfers.
In 2003, they acquired the Hotel Villa Taipei, a slightly run down, old school surf bungalow hotel in Playa Guiones. The decision to buy the Taipei and renovate it into the Harmony Hotel wasn’t driven by a desire to break into hospitality but rather as a strategic gambit. They believed development of this quiet beach town was inevitable, but that the direction of that development could be influenced - with the greatest leverage point being key properties and businesses that would set a tone for the whole community. They believed the Taipei, situated at the best surf break on the beach, in the center of the town on four acres, was the most influential of those properties.
A pathway through the property, before and after.
John and Susan reached out to friends with hotels for counsel and they hired a young upstart management company specializing in sustainable hotels to handle day to day operations. They got rid of the televisions and Coca Cola products, converted rooms to a Healing Centre, and forewent advertising in favor of a word of mouth approach. Susan collaborated with a landscape design mentor to restore canopy trails and to replant the entire property with native species. They hired locally for most positions, though it necessitated training for local Nosareños who had never worked in hospitality, and they began a significant community engagement effort.
Lawns transformed to native plant gardens.
As the hotel matured, and new hospitality offerings developed, the need for an overarching administration became clear. In 2015, Harmony Projects was established as the umbrella organization to oversee all entities under the Harmony brand. The team now operates a values-aligned ecosystem of businesses and initiatives that support our vision of living in ever-growing harmony with the community and natural world around us.