A Brief Introduction to Boutique Hotels?

For a great many people staying in a quality guest house or lodge is the best type of accommodation to stay in when visiting a city such as London in the United Kingdom. Such accommodation is usually considerably cheaper than even the cheapest hotels while the accommodation’s rooms are usually of a very high standard. Some of us dislike the majority of modern hotels even though there is often a wide choice from various hotel chains and family run hotels. Many consider the modern hotel rather cold, clinical and hardly inviting but for several decades now there has been a marked increase in the number of hotels which describe themselves as boutique hotels but what exactly is a boutique hotel?

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”.

While there are several boutique hotels which claim to be the very first two seem to have the strongest. Morgans Hotel in New York and San Francisco’s hotel Vintage Court. Morgans Hotel (owned by Ian Schrager) opened in 1984 having been designed by Andre Putman but Vintage Court, owned by Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Inc. which owns many boutique hotels, opened in 1983.

While most of the hotels belonging to the larger chains offer all of the most modern luxuries in often rather uniform buildings boutique hotels are really rather different. It is extremely common for these hotels to be designed around a particular theme with unique aspects you would not normally see in an ordinary hotel. For instance the Church Street Hotel in London UK has a rich Spanish-American theme with numerous examples of art to match the interesting Cubano style and such things as mexican tile work.

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.

If you like to boast a little, or if you like to impress friends or you just like to make interesting conversation then you might want to consider staying in the London boutique hotel Red Carnation, 41 Hotel at 41 Buckingham Palace Road. Yes this wonderful hotel is within minutes of the Palace itself and just opposite Buckingham Palace’s Royal Mews. In such an excellent position it is little wonder that the hotel is extremely popular.

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.