Boutique hotels are differentiated from mainstream hotels in having a more themed, niche and personalized service offering. Also referred to as lifestyle or design hotels, they first appeared on the London and New York scene in the 90s. Boutique hotels are significantly smaller than mainstream...
Boutique hotels are differentiated from mainstream hotels in having a more themed, niche and personalized service offering. Also referred to as lifestyle or design hotels, they first appeared on the London and New York scene in the 90s. Boutique hotels are significantly smaller than mainstream chains with capacity ranging between 3 and 50 guest rooms.
While mainstream hotels will often focus on delivering top notch room facilities, boutique hotels devote more resources to ensuring an intimate, comfortable and welcoming environment for guests. That does not however mean that boutique hotels will be stripped bare of vanities.
Rather, boutique hotels are very diverse in what can be found in their average rooms. Some hotels will have air conditioning, telephony, wireless internet, pay/cable TV and honesty bars. On the other end will be hotels that are short on gadgetry instead providing a quiet, serene environment. In almost all cases, boutique hotel staff are available 24 hours a day.
The typical structure of boutique hotels is individual/family ownership and/or few properties. A number of formerly boutique hotels have attempted to take the boutique concept mainstream by operating multiple properties in different countries. This has sometimes seen confusion in the understanding of what a boutique hotel is which only adds to the already blurry line between B&Bs (bed and breakfast) and boutique hotels.
That being said, New York remains the home of the most true boutique hotels. But other than the UK, Spain and the Far East are quickly embracing the boutique concept.
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