Hotels offer a wide variety of services depending on their category. For example, four- and five-star hotels typically provide the following services, in addition to accommodations and meals:
- Phone, fax, etc.
- Room service.
- Mini-bar in rooms.
- Laundry service.
- Bar.
- Cafeteria.
- Nightclub.
- Stores.
- Hair salon.
- Sauna, etc.
For tourists, breaking away from the standard hotel model can mean search for more unique features, such as the building’s history, its personal and distinctive character, as well as the best amenities and services.
In order to attract new guests and offer them a unique experience, hotels have opted to converting old buildings with architectural significance in the city into charming hotels.
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What is a boutique hotel?
Architecture architecture, along with interior design, is one of the main attractions that lead guests to choose this type of accommodation. The hearts of cities are filled with architectural gems and unique buildings that thousands of visitors admire every year. Strolling through the different streets is like stepping into a never-ending showcase of small and large details that give these streets and buildings their special character.
The uniqueness and character of boutique hotels are generally a great source of inspiration and generate widespread interest due to their location in a historic building, their contemporary design, or perhaps even their setting in an eccentric house decorated with flea market finds.
Hotels give a second life to buildings that once played an important role. This has always been the case, but it has now become very common in the market.
Restoration of Historic Buildings
This year, The Silo will open in Cape Town; it’s housed in a former grain silo. The Line, in Washington, D.C., is located in a church in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, and the 21C Museum Hotel Nashville is housed in a warehouse listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Who wouldn’t want to stay in a place like that, with such architectural and cultural significance? This revitalization of historic sites has become a fascinating trend.
At the same time, hotels are taking on a new role: bringing vitality to once-neglected neighborhoods. We’re not talking about struggling areas, but rather places where the hotel industry was previously underdeveloped. There are hotels setting up shop in unexpected locations, confirming that the future belongs to the brave and to those who dare to innovate.
In New York, with people already bored of SoHo and the two Upper Manhattan neighborhoods, a hotel scene is emerging in neighborhoods like Hell’s Kitchen (Hotel Ink48), on the Brooklyn Bridge (Hotel Brooklyn Bridge), and in the Seaport, a residential complex that’s almost like a resort.
The Origin of the Term “Boutique Hotel”
The term boutique hotel originated in Europe of the 1980s. It is used to describe hotels with intimate and unconventional atmospheres, generally connoting luxury. They tend to be small hotels with just a few rooms, each with its own unique personality and identity, and in many cases located in historic buildings as we mentioned earlier (castles, mansions, or historic districts). Unlike large hotel chains, they offer personalized service and attention, a high degree of privacy, and extraordinary amenities. They are generally designed around a specific style or theme.
It is understood that the main reasons for the increase in conversions are, on the one hand, that there is not a large supply of hotels for sale on the market; and, on the other hand, that the properties currently available have not yet adjusted their prices to what investors are willing to pay, so conversions are primarily driven by the fact that converting an existing building is more budget-friendly and, furthermore, allows the project to be tailored from the outset to the standards of the hotel chains that are considering operating these properties.
