Articles tagged “boutique hotels”

The hospitality industry shouldn't forget its humanity, while continuing to innovate - just in a sensible and appropriate way. Strong message.

There's been a sea change in terms of how new boutique hotel brands are named: Instead of recycling other brand names (ahem, Clarion Pointe) and looking to active adjectives (hello, Avid and Tru), we've now entered the era of brands on a first-name basis.

The battle for online travel dominance began long ago, but now it's really getting serious. Count this as Airbnb's official opening shot toward Booking and Expedia.

The beauty of Ennismore's flagship brand, The Hoxton hotels, is how it distills what the original boutique hotel pioneers did, but makes it relevant to today's audiences on a more equitable, democratic scale. CEO Sharan Pasricha's approach to hospitality — an outsider's perspective, if you will — is equally refreshing.

Oh, how times have changed. Instead of feeling threatened by Airbnb, some hotels are being wooed by the company. Online travel agencies, on the other hand, are about to get a taste of what it feels like to be disrupted by the likes of Airbnb.

To avoid the sugar high and then the inevitable crash when launching a new property, brands need to adopt a mindset of reciprocity and be a participant, and not a drain on the artistic ecosystem of a city.

Many cruise passengers sail because it's a more economical way to visit a destination. Caribbean countries like the Bahamas have known this for years and are getting more ambitious about trying to attract more flights — a perennial problem — and hoteliers that can help do a better job at growing their economies in the long term.

In some ways, building a boutique hotel brand isn't much different from when the first pioneers did it in the early 1980s. The only distinction is that today, the competition is certainly tougher and increasingly more abundant.

When everyone else in hospitality is going asset light or turning to soft brands, Study Hotels is content to do its own thing and at its own pace.

Boutique hotelier Richard Born is betting big on micro-hotels — and he isn't alone these days. Will most hotels going forward take the same approach? Or will hotel guests eventually tire of tiny rooms?