Business Traveler (USA)

Stay Unique

Quirky and sophistica­ted, the boutique hotel concept is making travelers feel at home around the world

- By Reggie Ho

Quirky and sophistica­ted, the boutique hotel concept is making travelers feel at home around the world

Since Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell started Andrée Putmandesi­gned Morgans on Madison Avenue in Manhattan and called it a“boutique hotel,”the concept has not stopped evolving. For the two decades that followed, boutique hotels steadily increased in number in the West, but the trend did not pick up in Asia until 2004 with the openings of The Scarlet in Singapore, and JIA Hong Kong, which has recently taken on the new name J Plus Boutique Hotel.

“In the past, traveling was not as casual as it is today. Then, many people had never flown on a plane before, so traveling was an event,”says Bill Chan, executive director and group general manager of Butterfly Hotels Group.“Many travelers were going to new places they had not been to before. When you are totally alien to a place, you tend to select big, brand-name hotels to stay in, as you feel safer with a familiar environmen­t.”

However, with the global economy shifting eastward, Asia is increasing­ly less foreign to travelers, especially the major commercial hubs. As a result, together with cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, Bangkok is also now seeing a thriving boutique hotel scene, led by properties such as The Davis.

Needing a Home

In addition to increased outbound travel to Asia, interregio­nal traffic is also growing rapidly, judging from the rising frequencie­s of flights between destinatio­ns within Asia. “Nowadays, many people travel several times a month, and for them taking a plane is like taking a bus,”Chan says.“With the Internet and the popularity of travel guides, people are no longer afraid of new destinatio­ns and they even seek them out.”

It still holds true that for many the perfect business hotel is primarily about a good location, compliment­ary breakfast and perhaps meeting facilities; the room is just a room. But things might be changing. According to a recent report entitled “From Chaos to Collaborat­ion”by travel technology provider Amadeus, 59 percent of business travelers surveyed around the world said they wanted a“home away from home”when traveling.

“Hotels will need to add value through technologi­es that make working away as easy and painless as possible and help turn business travelers into business tourists. This trend is part of the overall continued emphasis on work-life balance and wellbeing at work, including when traveling for

work,”says Jerome Seban, regional director, sales and consulting, customer solutions group, Amadeus Asia Pacific.

Boutique hotels, which promise some home comforts, may have become increasing­ly appealing to road warriors wanting more than just a bed and a shower.“Intimate settings and personal service are the keys, which big hotels with many rooms are less likely to be able to offer,”Vivian Chau, general manager of J Plus, says.“We have frontline staff members who have worked here for several years, and they know guests’ preference­s and habits well. For example, if a guest needs a VGA connector, adaptor, extra small face towel, peanut butter, their own country’s newspaper and so on, we will put it in the room before the guest checks in next time.”

Big Boutique Trend

It used to be that travelers were wary of independen­tly run properties, as they were unfamiliar with the room configurat­ions and the range of amenities available. But with online resources such as TripAdviso­r and social media sites, it’s easy to find out about smaller hotels through reviews by fellow travelers. Standards of boutique properties have also risen.

In October, Hong Kong-based Ovolo group launched one of its serviced apartment blocks as a boutique business hotel, Ovolo 2AR, after investing heavily to put in amenities such as big walnut work desks, designer ergonomic chairs (costing more than $1,900 each), onyx-and-marble bathrooms as well as technology such as WiFi, master light switches, Apple TVs and power adapters preinstall­ed in all rooms.

But the turning point for the boutique trend was when global hospitalit­y players began launching new lines of properties that promise a boutique hotel experience. Brands such as Indigo (IHG), Andaz (Hyatt) and MGallery (Accor) – which are categorize­d as“character hotels”– have sprung up, seemingly offering the perfect solution: you have standardiz­ation in areas such as power sockets, light switches and loyalty programs, but every property offers a markedly different design as well as choice of restaurant­s.

The caveat here is that many hotels by these brands are not boutique in size. The first“boutique-style”brand by an internatio­nal hotel group was W Hotels. But whereas trendsetti­ng Morgans features 114 rooms and most other boutique hotels stay below or around the 100 mark, the first W property, opened on Lexington Avenue in NewYork in 1998, has 693 guestrooms, suites and spa suites. Indeed, Starwood, which owns the brand, calls it “a design-led lifestyle brand”but promises that W provides an experience similar to staying in a boutique hotel.

“The main difference between a boutique hotel and W Hotels is the size. W’s in-house design team works closely and collaborat­ively with the ownership group of each hotel to choose a design partner that will be most suitable for the specific project,”says Arnaud Champenois, Asia Pacific brand director of W Hotels Worldwide and Le Méridien.

“‘Boutique’atmosphere is all about the service, the different touch points that are going to make your stay unique and memorable. On top of all the facilities you can experience in a luxurious five-star hotel, W Hotels is well known for its living room for instance – W’s reinterpre­tation of the traditiona­l lobby, a social space to mix and mingle, to see and be seen, drink and flirt around cocktails.”

The Name Game

Then we have the“character hotels,”a phrase coined by French hotel group Accor

for its collection of MGallery properties. “The so-called‘character hotels’make the guest experience‘a story’through all touch points within the hotel,”says Frederic Fontaine, senior vice-president – brand marketing for Mercure and MGallery. “This genuine experience is delivered by talented staff, and goes beyond a decoration, a design or old stones. It is all about emotions and experience­s that must be memorable.

“According to a study done by Added Value [research agency] for Accor on customers in France, the UK, Germany, Australia, Brazil and Poland in April 2012, 67.9 percent of high-end hotel clients consider the criteria‘I wanted something unique and exclusive’as very important.”

One of the brand’s latest openings, Hotel Muse in Bangkok has 174 rooms and a gothic and film-noir feel that has been well received. The hotel’s rooftop bar The Lawn – part of The Speakeasy food-and-drink concept that also includes a cigar lounge called Blind Pig – is popular among both in-house guests and local residents.

MGallery is not only part of a trend but also a business model. It allows individual hotels to turn to an internatio­nal hotel group for management support without having to sacrifice its individual­ity.“In a fast-changing world, hoteliers are seeking the support of an internatio­nally renowned hotel group for distributi­on, purchasing and revenue management, whilst keeping or enhancing their logo and personalit­y – the best of both worlds really,”Fontaine says, adding that MGallery Collection has 60“carefully selected”hotels under its wing, and the number is expected to grow.

Whatever you want to call it, the bottom line is that as long as a hotel delivers what it promises, guests will return. For travelers, comfort and convenienc­e are always going to be top priorities when it comes to hotels – but an extra touch of home or whimsy can never hurt. BT

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 ??  ?? Clockwise from this page top: The lobby at J Plus; Butter  y on Victoria’s calligraph­y wall and typical design in a W Hotel room
Clockwise from this page top: The lobby at J Plus; Butter y on Victoria’s calligraph­y wall and typical design in a W Hotel room
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