Dramatic d}cor: The
lobby at Viceroy Santa Monica
Brad Wilson, partner and COO of New York
City-based James Hotels, resents the term boutique.
“Boutique tends to imply lesser service, a 94-room hotel with one
desk agent,” he says. “That doesn’t apply to what we do.”
Whatever the terminology, the reality is indisputable: Owners
of boutique hotels a label that’s evolved to describe hotels of
approximately 230 rooms or fewer with a unique design and an
emphasis on personalized service are increasingly adding new
properties under an established hotel’s name, creating the apparent
oxymoron of the “boutique brand.”
Unlike a brand as conceived by major hotel chains, which are
designed to be comforting in their uniformity, boutique brands are
more varied and conceptual. The individual properties might only
resemble one another in name and by general characteristics: Hotel
Gansevoort properties, for example, all have distinctive rooftop
pools and lounge areas, but they might differ greatly in their
layout and design.
Boutique hotels are increasingly popular and profitable.
According to Hendersonville, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research,
through the first three quarters of 2005, occupancy levels in that
segment (among properties with 232 rooms or fewer) averaged 72
percent, up 5.1 percent from the same period in 2004. The average
daily rate, which is a standard measure of a hotel’s health, was up
11.3 percent from the same period in 2004, to $181.64. In just the
first three quarters of 2005, revenue at boutique properties
surpassed $1 billion.
Here’s a look at five new and expanding independent boutique
hotel brands that, in addition to bold visuals and personalized
service, are providing space and support for meetings.
Inner space: The lobby at the Alden
Houston
Alden Hotels
Currently, Alden is a mini-chain of one; the flagship hotel opened
in downtown Houston last September. But Tim Miller, Houston-based
president of Alden Hotels, is hoping to open a second property by
the end of this year and five over the next five years.
Miller explains that the key to understanding the Alden
identity is its name, which derives from the Old English word for
“old friend.” Miller wants guests to feel like they’re entering a
place as comfortable as a friend’s home.
Alden properties are conceived as luxury entries in the “easy
living” or “residential” mold, full-service hotels on the opposite
side of the style spectrum from the airs of white-glove service.
Guest rooms will have plush, upscale furnishings, DVD players
(guests can borrow DVDs from a box at the front desk) and
residential-quality installations in the bathrooms. Alden hotels
also offer complimentary town car service, “if you need to run to
the pharmacy or to an appointment,” Miller says.
The Houston property, housed in the former Sam Houston Hotel,
offers a 2,400-square-foot veranda, capable of accommodating groups
of up to 200 people, plus two meeting rooms and a boardroom.
Whether attending to the needs of business or pleasure, Miller’s
staff of 140, which periodically outnumbers the guests at his
97-room hotel, is trained to offer highly focused, personalized
service.
According to Miller, cities under “active consideration” for
future hotels are Atlanta, Austin (Texas), Phoenix and Denver. “A
tremendous number of cities, I would say, need an Alden,” Miller
says with a smile.
Hotel Gansevoort
Having opened in March 2004 as a full-service luxury property in
Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, Hotel Gansevoort feels more like
a chic lounge or nightclub than a hotel, with exposed stage lights
illuminating the lobby, staff members guarding the elevators like
bouncers and music pumping throughout the place (including the
swimming pool, underwater). “Our clientele is there to do business,
but they are looking for pleasure as well,” says Michael Achenbaum,
president of New York City-based Gansevoort Hotel Group.
With a second Gansevoort opening on the northern end of South
Beach in Miami at the end of this year and a third in downtown Los
Angeles in mid-2007, Achenbaum says his brand will be defined by
properties in trendy or up-and-coming neighborhoods and by a
signature rooftop pool, bar, lounge and terrace at each location.
(The rooftop at Gansevoort South in Miami will be the largest, at
28,000 square feet.) Achenbaum also says the hotels’ guest rooms
will be larger than the average rooms in each given market.
Achenbaum wants Gansevoort to offer five-star-level service in
a hip environment (“We’re not staffing with actors and waitresses.
We’re hiring people who want hotel careers,” he says) and pledges
to select interesting buildings for conversion. Gansevoort West in
Los Angeles, for example, is being constructed in the former
Trinity Church, which has a 1,800-seat amphitheater that Achenbaum
plans to preserve.
The new Gansevoort Hotels have more meeting space than typical
boutiques. Gansevoort South will feature 16,000 square feet of
dedicated meeting space, including a 6,500-square-foot ballroom.
Gansevoort West will feature approximately 6,700 square feet. The
original Gansevoort in New York has about 3,500 square feet of
meeting space. The rooftops at the properties can be used as
additional function space.
Achenbaum said he’s close to securing a deal for a fourth
Gansevoort in Las Vegas and will pursue other opportunities
cautiously.
Serene scene: The pool deck at
James Hotel Scottsdale in Arizona
James Hotels
Fine dining is what guests should expect at James Hotels. That’s
because Steve Hanson, who is the owner and president of New York
City-based B.R. Guest Restaurants, which runs 15 dining
establishments across the country, is a partner in the new
boutique chain, and each James property will feature a B.R. Guest
eatery. “It gives us the ability to execute exceptional food that
no other hotel operator is able to do,” says COO Brad Wilson, who
founded Starwood’s W brand before launching James.
Specifically, guests can look forward to candlelight dinners in
their rooms. “We’re trying to take full service even higher,”
Wilson says. “We provide in-room dining that’s served the way it’s
served in a restaurant, with tablecloths and candles. It’s a real
dinner.”
The original James Hotel Scottsdale opened in February 2004; a
second is set to debut in Chicago this spring, and Wilson says he’s
looking to add new properties in Los Angeles, Miami and New York
City.
A second identifying mark of James properties will be fitness
centers from Danny Errico, a James Hotels partner and founder of
Equinox Fitness Clubs.
The hotels don’t have a unifying design, Wilson notes, except
for functionality comfortable, usable rooms with lots of light. “We
want the design to be adjusted to your needs, not a designer’s
needs,” he explains.
Each property will have a ballroom and three or four meeting
rooms, but Wilson says James will remain a brand primarily geared
for transient travelers.
Boutique chic: A suite at the
Hotel Palomar San Francisco
Hotel Palomar
More than any of the emerging brands, Hotel Palomar properties are
hard to define. Steve Pinetti, senior vice president of sales and
marketing for San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant
Group, doesn’t even like to separate the Palomar series from the
rest of the Kimpton collection. “Kimpton has 40 unique, individual
hotels,” he explains. “It’s like having 40 kids with no twins or
triplets.”
The original Palomar opened in San Francisco in 1999, but now
Kimpton is adding Palomar properties in Dupont Circle in
Washington, D.C., this spring, in Dallas later this summer and in
Arlington, Va., in early 2007.
Design is guided by two general concepts: sleek, clean lines
and a dark, subtle color palate.
But Pinetti is most excited about the emotional connection he
says his guests form with Palomar, a result of superior service,
Pinetti claims. Using the Kimpton InTouch guest loyalty program,
staff can anticipate guests’ preferences before check-in. Guests
fill out personal surveys, and if someone notes an interest in
cooking, for example, a staff member might call in advance to see
if he or she would like to stop by and meet the chef one night
before dinner. “A hundred times out of 100, people say no,” Pinetti
says. “But how often have you received a call like that from a
hotel?”
The “service first” mentality extends to meetings. Pinetti says
Palomar’s management will help groups find the perfect meeting
space, even if it isn’t at the hotel. “As cool as my boardrooms are
and they are cool a hotel boardroom is a hotel boardroom,” Pinetti
says. He’d much rather see a group book at the art gallery down the
block and have the hotel provide food and beverage, than demand
exclusivity for meetings.
The Palomar in Washington, D.C., will have 10,500 square feet
of meeting space. The others on the drawing board will have between
5,000 and 8,000 square feet for meetings.
BRAND NEW BRAND
Conceptual: NYLO’s lounge, The LoftAdding a twist to the boutique boom, a new hotel company has emerged that will exclusively offer loft-style accommodations and plans eventually to become a chain of 150 to 200 properties. NYLO Hotels will be a flashy alternative to Marriott Courtyard or Hilton Garden Inn, says CEO John Russell. The first NYLOs will range in size from 135 to 180 guest rooms and will appear at various yet-to-be-named East Coast cities in the first quarter of 2007, Russell says. He hopes to have 50 hotels open by 2010.
Guest rooms will feature 11-foot ceilings and walls of exposed brick and polished concrete. The signature element of the chain, The Loft, is a central open area that is fluidly partitioned to include a 24-hour restaurant, a business center, a library, a lounge and a game room. The Loft can be rearranged to hold meetings.
“The residential lifestyle, that’s the real trend,” Russell says. “A lot of people seem to like loft accommodations where they live, and they like the idea in a hotel. We’re trying to capitalize on that trend.” -- T.I.
Viceroy
John Arnett, president of the Los Angeles-based Kor Hotel Group,
will let other hotels, like Hotel Gansevoort, corner the “trendy”
niche of the boutique market. And he’ll leave it to those like
Hotel Palomar to use information stored in databases to dictate how
staff interacts with guests. Viceroy hotels are designed to achieve
a “timeless sophistication,” he says, with service that is refined
and personal. The result, he hopes: unmistakable quality.
“When I think of exemplary service, it’s really very
unobtrusive,” Arnett says. “You know it when you see it. It’s not
overload. It’s appropriate, intuitive.”
That approach is the same that Kelly Wearstler, founder of the
Los Angeles-based interior design firm, kwid, used when conceiving
the original Viceroys in Santa Monica and Palm Springs, Calif.,
both of which opened in 2002. Viceroys have a look that Arnett
calls “a balance between sophistication and whimsy.”
The design is pervasive, but not overbearing. “Design goes
deeper than just fabric and marble,” Arnett explains. “It has to
penetrate amenities, too.” With quality and creativity as guiding
principles, Viceroy guest rooms offer touches such as Sony
PlayStations and “beauty bars” featuring specialty cosmetics.
Creativity is extended to the hotels’ meeting spaces, which, in
addition to traditional, dedicated meeting rooms, include special
150-square-foot poolside cabanas equipped with flat-screen TVs and
wireless Internet, ideal for accommodating some “very successful
smaller meetings,” Arnett says.
Along with two properties in Miami, Viceroy plans to open
hotels in Anguilla and the Riviera Maya in 2008.