travel and leisure

Owners of boutique hotels strive to provide guests with an experience during their stay. They want them to feel pampered by the service and comfortable with the atmosphere
but most of all
they want guests to feel at home. This is difficult to achieve in a hotel environment and relies on good use of space
creative design and high service standards to succeed.

Public spaces

Public spaces are important in any hotel
but need to be put to particularly good use in a boutique hotel. No matter whether the hotel is in a large mansion or a three-storey town house
making people feel at home in a place they are paying to stay in is a challenge. Public areas must be open enough to allow people their own space
without making the room feel bare or unfriendly. They must also have comfortable furniture
so that guests can relax
and a variety of lighting
so that guests can read
eat or just talk. These hotels are famous for encouraging a “shoes off” or “barefoot” attitude
where guests don’t feel that they have to dress up or follow certain formalities during their stay.

Rooms

The things that make you feel at home in your room are the details. Everyone’s used to a hotel room with a bed
some drawers and some hanging space
but it’s the extra details that turn a basic hotel room into a boutique hotel room. These details include creative bathroom solutions
antique furniture
quality linens
internet access and flat screen TVs. In addition
freshly-lit candles and exclusive toiletries create a luxurious but comfortable space.

Service

One of the downsides of large hotels is that the staff can never know who you are
where you’ve come from or why you’re visiting. This is something that doesn’t happen in boutique hotels. The lower number of total bedrooms in hotels of this type means that there is often more staff than guests
and this leads to high levels of personal service. Staff know your name and your room number and
in some of the more exclusive boutique hotels
they find out what you like before you even get there
so that it can be provided on arrival.

People who stay in a luxury boutique hotel for the first time are struck by how very different the design
ambience and service is from a standard hotel. As a guest
you immediately feel more relaxed and comfortable and this in turn contributes to the “home-from-home” feeling that many guests remark on.