The founder of Ace Hotels, Alex Calderwood, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 14 November at the company’s Shoreditch hotel, in London.

A day after his body was discovered, Ace Hotels posted a short message on its website, stating: “Yesterday Alex Calderwood passed away. Alex was our teacher, mentor, guru and most importantly our dear friend. We will miss him.”

The cause of his death has not been specified. Ace Hotel’s Teriha Yaegashi says his passing was a shock and that the team are committed to carrying on the work which he started.

“We're lucky to have a close knit team and Ace family, and together we will carry out his vision," she said.

With Ace Hotels, Calderwood created a stylised and quirky hotel experience, which reflects each location with the use of materials and art. Each has its own interesting mix of vintage furniture, fleamarket curios and retro touches, such as vinyl and turntables in the bedroom.

Born in Denver in 1966, Calderwood skipped college, became a party promoter and ran a vintage clothing business before teaming up with a friend to reinvent the barber shop experience. Rudy’s featured walls covered in snapshots, old posters, tiled floors and sturdy barbers chairs.

After creating a chain of around a dozen barber shops, the team took on a lease for a 28-bed flophouse in Seattle and set to work redefining the hotel experience.

With a mix of street art, reclaimed furniture, shared bathrooms and low prices, the brand was born. The name Ace was chosen because it is the high and low card in the deck. “We employ that high and low principle in our hotel models,” Calderwood once said.

There are currently five hotels four of which are in the US (Seattle, Portland, New York and Palm Springs) and one in the UK (London). The London property, in Shoreditch, is the most recent launch and opened in September. Two more are scheduled to open in Los Angeles and Panama.

Many have paid tribute to Calderwood on the Ace Hotels website: Luxehotelier said: “Visionary gets tossed around too lightly in the hotel biz. Alex Calderwood truly was one, in an industry that isn’t.”

200rooms said: “Alex changed the way many of us travel, while inspiring a new generation of hotel owners to create more local, immersive and layered hotel experiences. A big loss.”