Francesca Bonato
Meet the founder of a mini hotel empire on the Yucatán Peninsula.
“We dreamed it all up and built it together from nothing.”
“My mother says that when I was young, my backpack was always ready to go,” says Francesca Bonato. “I’ve always wanted to see how other people live, to find out what other places are like. I just have an inexplicable urge to go everywhere.”
Francesca’s desire to travel first took her on a solo adventure to Mexico to explore the nation’s landscapes. While there, she met her husband, Nicolas Malleville (he served her coffee on one of Tulum’s white sandy beaches). The two quickly fell in love, married and started to work toward a shared dream: founding Coqui Coqui—a mini hotel empire on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Francesca recalls, “Our friends and family all started coming to stay. We decided to build a guest room, and then another one. We kept adding more and our home st...
