Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - (Page 24) 24 News H&MM October 20, 2008 | HotelMotel.com www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition Boutique bonanza Continued from page 4 day, there’s all kinds of extendedstay players.” In addition to Kimpton, the boutique concept is traced to Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, who opened Morgans Hotel in New York in 1984, followed by the Royalton Hotel and Paramount Hotel. The hotels centered on lobby socializing and cheap chic. “Where boutique probably 10 years ago meant a little hotel in a less desirable area in a city, likely to be of three-star quality or lesser quality, the term boutique today often means a luxury hotel in a prime location,” Depatie said. Kimpton, which was founded in 1981, calls itself the first collection of boutique hotels. “We’re really trying to replace the word boutique with Kimpton and we’d like Kimpton to be synonymous with boutique, much like Kleenex is synonymous with those little white things you blow your nose with,” he said. Depatie admitted the word is used a lot and has some confusion surrounding it, but, “When you modify boutique with Kimpton, it really means something to our customers.” It’s not about size (Kimpton has a couple of hotels with 400 rooms, although most are smaller), but rather a mindset and customer service, Depatie said. Ingrid Summerfield, EVP and COO for Joie de Vivre Hotels, said anything over 225-250 rooms becomes too large because of the lack of personalized service. “It’s no longer personalized when there is a line at check-in and a people-mover system,” she said. Boutique brand The boutique experience also must be individually created for the location of the hotel, Summerfield said. So can there be a boutique brand? “Joie de Vivre Hotels in some ways is a boutique brand, but our hotels are individually handcrafted,” she said of the company, which entered the scene in 1987. “You can [have a boutique brand] as long as it doesn’t become the same room across the country.” InterContinental Hotels Group’s Hotel Indigo has done a good job of allowing that to happen by relaxing some of its design standards, Summerfield said. “If the hotel becomes too much alike, city after city, then to me that’s not boutique anymore.” To define boutique, Williams cited Mini Cooper as a boutique brand within BMW, and the popularity of Minor League Baseball. “People are craving that emo- The Hotel Palomar in San Francisco is an example of Kimpton’s drive to make its name synonymous with boutique hotels. It is, however, possible to have tional authenticity,” he said, adding that boutique hotels also need a boutique brand, Rowley said, citing Kimpton’s brands. “But I have a little edge. “You can’t be a part of the found that it is extremely difficult mainstream and be cutting edge,” for larger hotel companies to sufWilliams said, referring to the ficiently loosen design standards partnership between Marriott within an overall brand concept. A boutique hotel is indiInternational and Ian vidual by definition, and Schrager on their bouthat makes creating— tique brand, Edition. and maintaining—a “Ian is joining the most boutique brand a delicate commoditized compabalancing act.” ny, a company with ubiqDepatie said that in uitous, strong brands. the past, if a developer [Marriott] had to find a had a really great site in space for themselves, and a city, they would build they aligned themselves Rowley with someone who has a CHERYL ROWLEY DESIGN a full-service branded hotel. “Now people are saytrack record.” Cheryl Rowley, principal of ing, ‘I don’t want to be limited in Cheryl Rowley Design, who has rate what I can get for a full-serdesigned many boutique interiors, vice branded hotel. I have such a including several for Kimpton, great site, I want to put something said the term boutique has been really special here, and then I can charge whatever I want for it belargely misappropriated. “It is now applied to any num- cause customers really don’t know ber of hotels far outside the cate- exactly what to pay for it. I’ll build gory,” she said. “Having discov- a boutique hotel.’” Kimpton now finds itself comered the added value the moniker brings, large hotel companies have peting against the bigger hotel capitalized on the association, companies for the same sites. “I think developers are seeing however misbegotten. If a hotel has 300 rooms, escalators, confer- that customers really like [bouence centers, multiple restaurants tiques]; and in a lot of markets, the and such, it is not a boutique, no big brands are already fully reprematter how often the word is tout- sented,” he said. hgunter@questex.com ed by management.” Joie de Vivre Hotels keeps its hotels under 225-250 rooms to ensure service remains personalized, like at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco. CIRCLE NO. 126 JOIE DE VIVRE KIMPTON http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition http://www.source1purchasing.com http://www.source1purchasing.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 Contents Event Empowers Property-Level Leaders Boutique Bonanza Perspective Legal FAQ Consultant's Corner AAHOA Update Sales Clinic HotelWorld Update On Finance Trends & Stats Surprise Guests by Predicting Their Needs Transactions Worse Than Most Predicted Electronic Safes Housekeeping Services Marketplace Events Ad/Edit Index Classifieds Checking Out Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 (Page Cover1) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 (Page Cover2) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 (Page 1) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 (Page 2) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Boutique Bonanza (Page 4) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Boutique Bonanza (Page 5) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Perspective (Page 6) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Perspective (Page 7) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Consultant's Corner (Page 8) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Consultant's Corner (Page 9) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - AAHOA Update (Page 10) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - AAHOA Update (Page 11) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Sales Clinic (Page 12) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Sales Clinic (Page 13) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - HotelWorld Update (Page 14) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - HotelWorld Update (Page 15) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - On Finance (Page 16) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - On Finance (Page 17) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Trends & Stats (Page 18) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Trends & Stats (Page 19) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Surprise Guests by Predicting Their Needs (Page 20) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Surprise Guests by Predicting Their Needs (Page 21) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Transactions Worse Than Most Predicted (Page 22) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Transactions Worse Than Most Predicted (Page 23) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Transactions Worse Than Most Predicted (Page 24) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Transactions Worse Than Most Predicted (Page 25) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Electronic Safes (Page 26) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Electronic Safes (Page 27) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Electronic Safes (Page 28) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Electronic Safes (Page 29) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 30) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 31) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 32) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 33) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 34) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 35) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 36) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Housekeeping Services (Page 37) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Marketplace (Page 38) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Events (Page 39) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Ad/Edit Index (Page 40) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Classifieds (Page 41) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Classifieds (Page 42) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Classifieds (Page 43) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Classifieds (Page 44) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Classifieds (Page 45) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Checking Out (Page 46) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Checking Out (Page Cover3) Hotel & Motel Management - October 20, 2008 - Checking Out (Page Cover4)
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