There’s no denying that hotels take quite some liberties with how they market themselves. There’s no global regulatory body that decides whether a hotel is a five-star property, or if it’s boutique. I wanted to talk about that in a bit more detail in this post — what exactly is a boutique hotel?
In this post:
What I consider to be a boutique hotel
In the hospitality industry, “boutique” is a phrase that has been increasingly used to describe hotels. The way I view it, there are a few non-negotiable traits that make a hotel boutique:
- It’s small — a mega hotel can’t be considered boutique
- It has a cool and/or unique design — a cookie-cutter hotel can’t be considered boutique, even if it’s small
- It’s upscale or luxury — in general I think that a run down two star hotel can’t be considered boutique
Now, in an ideal world, I’d say there are actually a few more traits of a true boutique property. For example, I think ideally a boutique hotel is fully independent and doesn’t belong to a chain, which generally makes it unique. I also think it can’t have a lot of meeting or events space, which often takes away the intimacy of a property.
I’d like to think my interpretation of a boutique hotel makes sense, since the word “boutique” is defined as follows:
a business or establishment that is small and sophisticated or fashionable
Can a big hotel be considered boutique?
It’s interesting to note how large chain hotels describe themselves as being boutique. For example, it’s something that Hyatt’s Thompson brand is guilty of. The Thompson Denver describes itself as a “216-room luxury boutique hotel.” Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t consider a 200+ room hotel to be boutique, no matter how luxurious it is, or how much of a sense of place it has.
This isn’t the only Thompson property that does this. You’ll similarly find that the 247-room Thompson Chicago and 287-room The Beekman New York also market themselves in this way. While these hotels may be reasonably luxurious and somewhat stylish, I wouldn’t consider them to be boutique, purely because of the size, if nothing else.
Now, I suppose it could be argued that these hotels are small, relatively speaking. The Thompson Chicago is small compared to the 2,032-room Hyatt Regency Chicago, and The Beekman is small compared to the 1,966-room Marriott Marquis New York. But still, I’m not sure what’s what we should be comparing hotel sizes to.
I’m not sure where exactly I draw the line on size:
- My gut says that if a hotel has more than 200 rooms, it’s definitely not boutique; to me, ideally a boutique hotel would have under 100 rooms (or heck, even under 50 rooms)
- I do think there should be some consideration for the location of a hotel — in other words, I might consider a 150-room hotel in New York City to be boutique, while I might not consider a 150-room hotel in the Maldives to be boutique
Of course ultimately I understand why hotels are choosing to market this way. The major hotel groups keep growing, and they love using all the buzzwords that they think consumers want to hear — authentic, distinctive, boutique, etc.
Bottom line
A lot of hotels like to market themselves as being boutique. To me, a boutique hotel is one that’s small, has a cool design, and is at least upscale. Personally I have a hard time considering a hotel with over 200 rooms to be boutique, but maybe that’s just me.
So, OMAAT readers — how do you define a boutique hotel? Is there a size limit? Also, bonus points to the person who can find the hotel with the highest room count that refers to itself as “boutique.”
For me to be a boutique property is max 50 keys!
Great post!
Rule #1 of a true boutique hotel is that it does not call itself boutique. No other rule is as important.
Indeed, the word "boutique" does not appear anywhere on the webpage of the Fogo Island Inn!
A hotel that describes itself as being "boutique" generates a visceral reaction in me to avoid it. It's use only conveys the interest of the management on providing deceiving smoke and mirrors than actual substance, and...
Great post!
Rule #1 of a true boutique hotel is that it does not call itself boutique. No other rule is as important.
Indeed, the word "boutique" does not appear anywhere on the webpage of the Fogo Island Inn!
A hotel that describes itself as being "boutique" generates a visceral reaction in me to avoid it. It's use only conveys the interest of the management on providing deceiving smoke and mirrors than actual substance, and maybe even charging a higher rate. If there's a choice between a 200 room boutique hotel and a 200 room business hotel, the latter is always, always, always a better choice. Did I say always?
This article says almost nothing. More details would make it stronger for example about the hotel's decor or room size, decorations, fit out, hotel amenities, etc
Ben, I agree. No matter how nice a hotel may be, I think anything over say 20-30 rooms is not what I would consider boutique. I think very personalized service and personal touches from polished staff. You really rarely find that in larger properties.
I pass this hotel on my work trips in Greenville, SC. It does not look like a "boutique" hotel and looks like a former motel or motor inn. Even the website does not make it look any different than a cheap motel.
https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-greenville/urban-boutique-hotel-bw-signature-collection/propertyCode.41110.html
This is what I was saying. Any hotel can just call itself boutique. It is probably just marketing.
TOM TOM Suites, Istanbul! Now that is a Boutique Hotel. very nice & quality service and rooms.
As someone already said, not part of any chain is key.
Question to you Ben: Raffles in Singapore — 115 Suites, central location. It is part of Raffles chain (which frankly would not exist without the SG property and part of Accor — then again it feels distinctly apart from the rest of the group due to its unique history).
Boutique or not?
@ Berlin traveler -- That's a good question! The Raffles Singapore is a fantastic hotel, and there are many ways I'd describe it. However, I don't think "boutique" would be one of those. I'd almost describe the hotel more as grand or palatial than boutique. A hotel not being boutique isn't always a bad thing, though...
For me, boutique just can't be part of a large group or chain. Maybe 2-3 hotels in a given city...even that is a stretch. AMAN is nice, but way too big to be boutique.
Wow, blast from the past. That photo of the Thompson Chicago takes me back to when when it was a Kempinski and I lived across the street from it.
Ah, nostalgia...
Hi I did not know that Kempinski had a presence in USA: when and why did it close? Were there any others stateside?
Have hiked+skied past a beautiful Kempinski in St Moritz that was fashioned from an old abandoned property into a high end luxurious hotel. See the website.
I have stayed in a hotel with only 18 rooms, but it has a restaurant, swimming pool and spa, so for me it would be boutique.
I think the Aman brand would embody the quintessential boutique hotel theme. Small, local, upscale and incredible service.
IMO boutique hotels should be unique, give a local flair, and feel like a second home. The upper-end ones should have a concierge that's super tuned in to the city and can get you reservations and invites to "in-the-know" restaurants and events.
e.g. I consider The Upper House in HKG to be boutique. One of the staff gifted me coins to take the street trams when they heard I hadn't ridden one yet and didn't...
IMO boutique hotels should be unique, give a local flair, and feel like a second home. The upper-end ones should have a concierge that's super tuned in to the city and can get you reservations and invites to "in-the-know" restaurants and events.
e.g. I consider The Upper House in HKG to be boutique. One of the staff gifted me coins to take the street trams when they heard I hadn't ridden one yet and didn't have any coins on me, and then the front desk asked how the tram was when I came back later that day.
IME a 2.5 star hotel given a bit of "chic" to try to be a 4 star hotel. A couple of the chains aren't bad and others are a Comfort Inn masquerading as a Hilton or Marriott. Some (the Yotel) have an outrageous "resort fee" which pays for a water and coffee machine on your floor. And the coffee sucks.
Why do we care about the labelling of something as boutique or not?
I stay at a hotel if it's high quality and good value, not because it's boutique or not. As most other consumers also do.
@ yoloswag420 -- Well, that raises a completely different set of questions. Without having stayed somewhere, how do you know whether a hotel is high quality or good value?
I think there is a difference between what you want it to mean, and what hotels are trying to signal by using the term. For me, if I see a "boutique" hotel, I automatically assume the rooms are going to be small and I will pay more for them.
@Ben Is this a boutique hotel according to your own words?
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/all-club-ritz-carlton/
You described it as a boutique property so can there be an exception for a chain hotel to be boutique then?
This hotel has 67 rooms so it is definitely on the small side and as a Ritz Carlton I am sure it would fall under luxury though it may be a cookie cutter design hotel. Yet, what is special about it as...
@Ben Is this a boutique hotel according to your own words?
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/all-club-ritz-carlton/
You described it as a boutique property so can there be an exception for a chain hotel to be boutique then?
This hotel has 67 rooms so it is definitely on the small side and as a Ritz Carlton I am sure it would fall under luxury though it may be a cookie cutter design hotel. Yet, what is special about it as pointed out is how everyone gets lounge access.
Herding into the same lounge as everyone else "with status" is the opposite of boutique. Be different, stay somewhere that doesn't care where you stayed last month or what credit card you carry around.
You make a good point about being different but this hotel is quite unusual. I wrote about how this hotel allows everyone with or without status to access the lounge. Though, I had stayed at excellent independent hotels and they were sometimes even better than the chain hotels.
@ Stanley C -- Fair question. Personally I'm not in the camp of thinking that a hotel belonging to a chain can't under any circumstances be boutique (it's why I put that in a section where I said "in an ideal world"). I do think it's one of the smallest Ritz-Carlton properties out there, which is why I labeled it as such.
Yes, maybe it's still not truly boutique, and I'm overusing the word. But it's better than a 200+ room Thompson, right? :-)
Stayed at Maison Métier in New Orleans. Would call it boutique (small, high quality, unique style). Will be back.
It is now under the “Hyatt” brand but not part of World of Hyatt. AMEX FHR booking worked out perfectly.
@Peter This hotel looks so charming. So, it had good value then? Was it worth it to stay here rather than at a Hyatt hotel where you can earn points and receive WoH benefits?
Yes. For $89 ($289 minus AMEX $200 credit) for the suite room. Was upgraded to corner suite (very large). $30 credit for breakfast and $100 credit for other. There was $50/night valet parking.
The quality was surprising. A relatively new hotel but the fixtures, the old school woodwork, the bedding, etc.. Thought I was in a Belmont.
I read Hyatt took over in June this year and perhaps will become part of WoH...
Yes. For $89 ($289 minus AMEX $200 credit) for the suite room. Was upgraded to corner suite (very large). $30 credit for breakfast and $100 credit for other. There was $50/night valet parking.
The quality was surprising. A relatively new hotel but the fixtures, the old school woodwork, the bedding, etc.. Thought I was in a Belmont.
I read Hyatt took over in June this year and perhaps will become part of WoH by year’s end.
Very friendly local NOLA staff. Wish I had time to go to the speakeasy entrance bar. Read locals even go here.
That is very true Ben. It is totally better than a 200 plus room Thompson. The word boutique is definitely being overused in the hotel industry. I guess everyone has a different opinion on what is a boutique hotel.
I concur with you about how a boutique hotel should be small, unique and luxurious. I had seen hotels on OTAs described itself as boutique but it was certainly not upscale or luxurious. Haha.
Lucky, I get you are a Dad now with much less time to travel. And as good as all the opinion pieces are I miss the constant crazy trip reports you used to post.
@ Nathan -- I promise the crazy travel schedule will be resuming shortly, in September. :-) I appreciate your patience and interest, as I have multiple fun trips I'm in the process of finalizing. A bunch of personal commitments have prevented me from doing exciting stuff in the past couple of months.
Very interesting topic, Lucky. Thank you for posting this. I think the term boutique is way overplayed, and I hesitate to think of anything 200+ rooms as very boutique unless it meets some vary narrow criteria... let's say it's an historic or significant building, not part of a chain, restored to some prior era. (Would that make the Queen Mary a boutique hotel?)
I think an important criteria is that it has to embody the...
Very interesting topic, Lucky. Thank you for posting this. I think the term boutique is way overplayed, and I hesitate to think of anything 200+ rooms as very boutique unless it meets some vary narrow criteria... let's say it's an historic or significant building, not part of a chain, restored to some prior era. (Would that make the Queen Mary a boutique hotel?)
I think an important criteria is that it has to embody the local culture. A boutique hotel is in my mind one that if you put it somewhere else geographically, it wouldn't quite fit.
I don't think it necessarily has to be a luxury property in star rating. I've stayed in several hotels I'd consider "boutique" in small towns across the US. They are independent properties, don't have to be luxurious but certainly clean and well maintained, with some sort of uniqueness. Rundle Suites in Glasgow, MT or Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, VT. Both of those (I've stayed at this year) very much are part of their small towns and the buildings have a local historical significance or at least a cool story.
So fun fact... the term boutique hotel is widely considered to have originated with Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager who were the owners of Studio 54 and opened the Morgans Hotel in NYC in a former long-stay hotel.
Boutique = not bookable with points.
Or is part of some third-party program like Guestbook that gives dollars off.
I would say all of the SLH hotels are boutique and most of them are bookable with points.