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Boutique Hotels - romance, mystery, something different. The hospitality industry reinvents itself again. Or does it? Small is better. Know your guest. High standards of personal service and attention to the guest's needs and wants. This is not new stuff, but is being packaged in a new way.
Boutique hotels have been around forever. Small, privately owned hotels and resorts, with unique characteristics were the foundation of the modern hospitality industry. The local hotel was often the pride and joy of a community and was often owned by a local consortium of businessmen. My great grandfather was one of these visionaries. His hotel was part of a transportation system, where travelers could relax and refresh before continuing their journey, either by rail or steamer. Long before chains took over the landscape, there were many of these excellent hotels, which appealed to the carriage trade, with very fine and competent owner/operators.
Change occurred when hoteliers formed joint marketing and referral organizations, which eventually resulted in chain operations. As these companies built new properties and grew, they pushed most of the older properties into the second or third choice of regular travelers. As occupancies plummeted along with profits, these older hotels fell into the hands of new owners. These former dowagers were modernized and renovated, painted over and boxed in, so that many of their most beautiful features were covered over, leaving them with no sense of their history or architecture, and so they became just another hotel, struggling to survive in a cluttered field of new offerings. They had lost their unique charm.
Having worked at Holiday Inns once in my former life, I remember, very well, the advertising slogan, "The best surprise is no surprise." This was intended to overcome the problem of transition for that company and it's guests, moving from a low-rise suburban environment, to a high-rise urban one. Of course that campaign was pulled before its' time because it was said of Holiday Inns, that you never knew what city you were in, when you woke up in the morning, because of the similarity of the rooms. This is a great testament to standardization, which is the corner stone of Holiday Inns' success, but promoted the wrong benefit.
After several decades of remarkable industry growth, new product offerings, flagging, and branding, the general public is in a state of confusion. Now that is big mistake - don't confuse the guest! The guest does not know why the hotel where he/she always stays has become a Ramada, after being a Holiday Inn for twenty years. This re-branding promotes instability, and like the stock market or politics, when things are unstable, people stay away in droves.
Hence the re-emergence of hotels that have always been there, usually with the same name. They are landmarks. They have a charm of something not of this age, ergo the mystery. A new owner has reinvested, renovated and discovered the unique styling cues that made the hotel famous in it's heyday, and then added the new amenities that are the standard for today. That mixed with high personal service standards gives them Scatchard, noted author of Eating the Competition's Lunch and Upsetting the Applecart, said recently in his newsletter, the Hoteliers' Infosource, "I am so sure of this concept being the wave of the future that I'm planning to do something I never thought I would…build a Unique Boutique hotel. And I believe he is right. And so do others.
Most notable in the firmament is Starwood's W Hotels. As for the W name, in a press release of April 1998, Barry Sternlicht, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, explained, ``W is for witty, warm, wonderful. Essentially, it is for 'wonder why no one has ever done this before.''' You know something's up, when the big boys wade in. However, W Hotels are latecomers to the dance. The Kimpton Group has been around since 1981, offering unique alternatives in hospitality. Check out their web site at www.kimptongroup.com .
And what about others! Relais & Châteaux have been around for years and have 415 hotels in 42 countries www.relaischateaux.fr . Check out "100 Boutique Hotels" at www.boutiquehotels.com in the center of Paris. I wonder how much this domain name will be worth, when this concept gets hot. That will be the true test of this bright new box. Have a look at Unique Hotels and Resorts www.uniquehotels.com , which operate a collection of, self-styled, boutique hotels. What about the upscale Bed & Breakfasts and small inns that are cutting into the traditional hotel marketplace. One of my personal favorites is The Salem Inn, Salem, MA www.saleminnma.com , where my wife and I stayed a number of years ago. Good value and delightful!
There are lots of examples of "small is better" and "unique is, well…Unique!" A greater choice makes it better for the consumer. A very bright future for that bright new box!
Guy is Professor at Seneca College, Toronto, Ontario an editor of The Hotel Resource and can be reached at gbaker@hotelresource.com
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Guy Baker
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