What Is A Boutique Hotel? Does The Term Mean Nothing At This Point?

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. So I’d like to talk about that in a bit more detail in this post — what exactly is a boutique hotel, and how have we gotten to the point where the term basically means nothing anymore?

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, though admittedly each of these points is subjective:

• 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 (though there are some small chains with unique properties, like Aman, Capella, etc.). 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, and it seems this trend is becoming more common rather than less common. For example, I find that it’s something that “lifestyle” brands, like Marriott’s EDITION and Hyatt’s Thompson, are especially guilty of (“lifestyle,” talk about another hotel term that means very little).

For example, the 216-key Thompson Denver is described as a “luxury boutique hotel,” while the 294-key Miami Beach EDITION is described as a “boutique, design hotel with modern rooms and luxury amenities, like world-class entertainment and dining, near South Beach.” Boutique?!

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 hotels are small compared to the 1,966-room Marriott Marquis New York, 2,032-room Hyatt Regency Chicago, etc. But still, I’m not sure that’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, a boutique hotel would typically have under 100 rooms, or ideally, 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 hundreds of rooms to be boutique, but maybe that’s just me.

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.”