Quirky perks: the Hotel Monaco chain offers loaner goldfish to guests who miss their pets

Boutique hotels:
Traveling in style

March 10, 2000
Web posted at: 12:52 p.m. EST (1752 GMT)

(womenCONNECT) -- Boutique hotels are to travelers what black is to fashionistas -- a statement where style is as important as substance. The good news is that the growing number of these hotels across the United States manage to combine the basics -- comfortable bed, good lighting, safe environment, affordable rates and Internet hookups -- with special, exotic, intimate touches for travelers.

The Hotel Monaco in San Francisco provides guests with loaner goldfish; housekeeping feeds them. The Nob Hill Lambourne, which has a "mind, body and soul" theme, offers a "healthy turn-down service" with vitamins instead of chocolates on your pillow. The W*Tuscany in Manhattan has in-room gum ball machines, with all coins collected donated to charity.

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"If Sheraton is a Coor's Lite, boutique hotels are a hand-crafted microbrew," says Dominik Eckenstein, proprietor of the 80-room Admiral Fell Inn in Baltimore. "It's not just about a bed for the night, it's an experience."

The boutique niche of hotels is so new that no official demographics exist, but women -- whether traveling on business or pleasure -- are clearly embracing them, managers say.

By definition, a boutique hotel is a smallish property, generally no more than 150 to 200 rooms that are distinctive, often flamboyantly decorated. Their small size means guests get to know staff and vice versa, which lends to an extra feeling of security. Most are housed in older buildings with intriguing past lives.

"Smaller hotels in general mean employees get to know guests quickly," Eckenstein says. "Fewer rooms mean less long hallways. The cozier interior often has more details that appeal to women -- canopy beds, fireplaces in the lobby. And having a highly acclaimed restaurant on site means everything is in the same building."

Marideth Post, of the San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, isn't sure how much women really need or want to be treated differently. "A lot of the same comfort and amenities that are enjoyed by women are also enjoyed by men -- quality linen, bathrobes, good restaurants," she says. "But these kind of hotels do feel more safe, with a more intimate environment."

By definition, a boutique hotel is a smallish property, generally no more than 150 to 200 rooms that are distinctive, often flamboyantly decorated. Their small size means guests get to know staff and vice versa, which lends to an extra feeling of security. Most are housed in older buildings with intriguing past lives -- the Admiral Fell was a vinegar distilling factory at one time -- that have been recycled and restored.

The latest boutique trend concept began more than 20 years ago, with the opening of the Blake in London, a quirky property in which no two rooms were alike. Following were chic, celebrity-attracting hotels such as Miami's Delano, and New York's Mercer and Royalton. These pricey properties were -- and are -- badges as important to upwardly mobile trendsetters as, say, Kate Spade handbags or 007 Omega watches. Room rates, then and now, rivaled those of luxury hotel chains like the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton, ranging from $200 - $400.

Kimpton: Solo dining, wine service

Things got more interesting for style-seeking, moderate-budget travelers when Bill Kimpton, founder of Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Inc., began developing the prototype for the affordable boutique hotel. At Kimpton, which currently owns 28 hotels and 27 restaurants in major metro cities ranging from San Francisco to Seattle to Chicago, rates originally averaged about $99 per night. Prices now still hover at a moderate $150 a night or so.

Some of the distinctive Kimpton touches that appeal to this female traveler, whose trips for business are usually solo ones, include the hip and trendy restaurants. Some of them even feature seating that's ideally designed for the solo traveler, such as the exhibition-style bar that curves around the cooking areas offering a diversion.

That feature turns up at the Grand Cafe in the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco, the Pazzo Italian restaurant in the Hotel Vintage Plaza in Portland, Oregon, and 312 Chicago in the Hotel Allegro Chicago and the Bambara Restaurant at the Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake City.

Another nice touch: Kimpton hotel managers host daily evening wine service in their home-like lobbies (and half of these have gas fireplaces) from 5-6 p.m. "It's an opportunity for people to socialize in the safe environment of the hotel," Post says. And unwind.

While guest rooms at Kimpton properties are generally smaller than average, living room-cozy furnishings, and business-necessary high-tech accouterments such as two-line telephones and Internet access definitely compensate.

The decor for the Hotel Rex, at Union Square, pays homage to the New Yorker, and features leather furniture and an antiquarian bookstore in the lobby. The Nob Hill Lambourne, on the other hand, has a "mind, body and soul" theme and features in-room spa services, a "healthy" continental breakfast and a shrink-on-call.

Joie de Vivre, another San Francisco-based hotel company, is carving an even more imaginative niche with boutique hotels designed around themes. The company has an eccentric collection of 15 hotels, five restaurants and bars, an urban day spa and even a boutique campground, located mostly in northern California. Company founder Chip Conley emphasizes "our goal is to create landmark hotels, restaurants and bars full of soul and personality."

Whimsical in nature, there is less of a common thread between Joie de Vivres group of hotels. Not all have restaurants and prices and styles vary wildly. Among the iconoclastic properties include The Phoenix, a retrofitted (and renovated) 1950s-style motel near the San Francisco Civic Center.

The decor for the Hotel Rex, at Union Square, pays homage to the New Yorker, and features leather furniture and an antiquarian bookstore in the lobby. The Nob Hill Lambourne, on the other hand, has a "mind, body and soul" theme and features in-room spa services, a "healthy" continental breakfast and a shrink-on-call.

Locating boutique hotels

Until recently, the boutique industry was ignored by the big hoteliers like Hyatt, Sheraton, Westin and Hilton. But in late 1998, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which owns brands such as Westin, Sheraton and the St. Regis/Luxury Collection, launched the industry's first cohesive boutique chain.

Called W Hotels, the first -- W New York -- opened on Lexington Avenue, in Manhattan. W, like smaller, home-grown companies such as Kimpton and Joie de Vivre, has blended sophisticated business amenities with offbeat touches. While each of the company's properties -- there will be 16 by 2001 -- maintain some level of individuality, W New York, which has a nature theme, decorates rooms in earth colors of green, brown, beige and supplies guest rooms with a box of wheat grass on the windowsill (and offers organic treats in the minibar).

Perhaps the biggest challenge for fans of boutique hotels is finding them. Eckenstein, the Baltimore hotelier, suggests that travelers who use travel agents specify criteria such as "small hotel," and "historic." Searching the Internet with keywords like those, and "boutique hotel" can yield some independent treasures.

Copyright 2000 womenCONNECT, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Kimpton Group
The Nob Hill Lambourne
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