Boutique Hotels: The True Concept and Current Landscape

What is a Boutique Hotel?

One thing is for sure: hotels are often quite creative in how they market themselves. There’s no global organization that dictates what qualifies a hotel as five-star or boutique. Today, I want to delve into the concept of boutique hotels and discuss why this term seems to be fading in significance.

Key Characteristics of Boutique Hotels

In my view, there are a few non-negotiable features that distinguish a boutique hotel. Here are what I consider essential:

• Small Size: A large hotel cannot be classified as boutique.
• Unique Design: A hotel with identical designs throughout cannot be considered boutique, no matter its size.
• Class or Luxury: In my opinion, a mid-range hotel cannot be labeled as boutique.

Ideally, a boutique hotel should be an independent establishment, not part of a chain, which often adds to its uniqueness. Additionally, a boutique hotel shouldn't have too many meeting or event spaces, as this can detract from the intimacy of the environment.

Boutique Hotels in the Modern World

Interestingly, many large hotel chains are attempting to brand themselves as boutique. This trend is becoming increasingly common. For example, lifestyle brands like Marriott’s EDITION and Hyatt’s Thompson frequently use this term.

Take the Thompson Denver, which has 216 rooms and is labeled a “luxury boutique hotel,” while the Miami Beach EDITION with 294 rooms is described as a “boutique hotel with modern design and luxury amenities, near South Beach.” Is this really boutique?!

While these hotels may be luxurious and stylish, I don’t consider them truly boutique just because of their size. In fact, one could argue that they are still much smaller than massive hotels like the Marriott Marquis New York, which boasts 1,966 rooms.

Size and Location

I feel there is a clear size limit for what constitutes a boutique hotel. In my opinion, if a hotel has more than 200 rooms, it certainly isn’t boutique; typically, a boutique hotel has fewer than 100 rooms, or ideally, under 50 rooms.

As for location, I also think this is a factor worth considering. For instance, I might consider a 150-room hotel in New York to be boutique, but I wouldn’t think the same of a 150-room hotel in the Maldives.

Why Do Hotels Like to Call Themselves Boutique?

Ultimately, I completely understand why hotels choose to market themselves this way. Large hotel groups are expanding, and they love using enticing terms that they think customers want to hear — like exclusive, unique, boutique, etc.

Honestly, the Thompson Chicago does not look boutique to me at all.

Conclusion

Many hotels prefer to market themselves as boutique hotels, but from my perspective, a boutique hotel must be small, have unique design, and at least be of a higher class. Personally, I find it hard to consider a hotel with hundreds of rooms as boutique, but perhaps that’s just my own viewpoint. So, how do you define a boutique hotel? Is there a size limit? If anyone finds a hotel that claims to be “boutique” with the highest number of rooms, please share!