A Brief Introduction to Boutique Hotels?
May 26, 2008 by Bill Harris
Filed under Travel
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The travel industry is huge and there are many huge organizations involved which own numerous hotels with one or more properties in most of the world’s important cities such as London in Great Britain. However there are also a great many individuals and families who run small hotels, guest houses or other accommodation. It is often the case that many of us choose to stay in such accommodation rather than one of the well known, and rather more expensive, hotels which often seem very much the same whichever city you are in. Over the last few decades it has become common for accommodation to be advertised as a “boutique hotel” and this article examines exactly what it is that makes it “boutique”.
In stark contrast, to the well known national and multi-national motel and hotel chains, boutique hotels are usually much smaller and family run. The term originates from North America where these hotels offered a highly personalized service in a luxurious hotel of a distinctive character.
At the beginning of the 1980’s tourists, travelers and traveling businessmen started to demand hotels which offered accommodation which more closely matched their lifestyles and culture. To meet this demand a small number of hotels attempted to create an appealing atmosphere to these travelers and such hotels were quickly labeled “lifestyle hotels”, “design hotels” or “designer hotels”.
In 1984, the Morgans Hotel in New York opened, it was owned by Ian Schrager, a famous hotelier, who had commissioned Andre Putman to design it. Morgans Hotel, New York is credited as being the world’s very first Boutique hotel. There are other boutique hotels which lay claim to being the first, such as San Francisco’s hotel Vintage Court which opened in 1983. Vintage Court is part of the Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Inc. which has many boutique hotels.
One of the most interesting aspects of boutique hotels is the way in which they are usually themed. Rather than concentrate on all the modern bells and whistles, often available in hotels owned by the larger chains, boutique hotels offer personality and personal service. For example the Church Street Hotel in London, a Spanish-American Boutique hotel, is decorated in a Cubano style with mexican tile work which has been hand painted with numerous items of art and furnished with excellent Colonialist furniture.
Many cities, including London, now have a selection of boutique hotels to choose from but the definition of a true boutique hotel has recently become rather blurred due to the actions of some of the major hotel chains. Best Western has opened the boutique hotel, Shaftesbury Kensington and several other chains have also began to develop more hotels which could be described as a boutique hotel so there is now a little confusion about what exactly makes a hotel a boutique hotel.
One of the best boutique hotels in London is found opposite the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace at 41 Buckingham Palace Road. The Red Carnation, 41 Hotel is only a few minutes walk from many of London’s finest tourist attractions and only a short distance from Buckingham Palace itself. If you are visiting London you may want to stay here if only to be able to say to friends that you stayed at that address.
Yes it would seem that wherever you turn these days a boutique hotel is opening. In August 2008 there is even a boutique hotel opening on the remote Isle of Harris which is a small island off the west coast of Scotland. While there are certainly plenty to choose from the very nature of these hotels means that it is highly unlikely that you will ever find two that are the same. I for one will be booking into such a hotel when I next visit London or anywhere else.
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