Independent Hotel Show | Boutique hotels more popular than ever
Independent Hotel Show | Kimpton De Witt Amsterdam, de boutique collection van IHG
Kimpton De Witt Amsterdam, de boutique collection van IHG.
We’re seeing a big increase in the number of boutique hotels globally. Not only are more ‘independent’ hotels emerging, but large hotel chains are also investing in these luxury lifestyle hotels. Coming Tuesday, March 12 and 13, the Independent Hotel Show is taking place in the RAI in Amsterdam. A ’boutique fair’ for owners and managers of this type of hotel.
Independent Hotel Show | Chains are tapping into the growing market for boutique hotels
The first ’boutique hotels’ emerged in the early ’80s in San Francisco and New York. The first boutique hotel of the Netherlands, Hotel 717 on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, opened 25 years ago. ‘Boutique’ just to signify: intimate, creative, and chic. Now, it has grown into its own category, alongside, for example, airport hotels, motels, and conference hotels. Generally, they are still small-scale hotels with fewer than 100 rooms, an intimate character, often located in an urban setting, and with a lot of attention to design and the guest. Originally, these were ‘independent hotels’, hotels that were not affiliated with a chain, but now even big hotel chains like Hilton and Accor are tapping into the growing market for boutique hotels.
Authentic experience
“The recent popularity of boutique hotels is not hard to explain,” says hospitality trend watcher Vincent van Dijk. “The boutique hotel fits very well with the desires of today’s guest. They are looking for a unique and authentic experience. The guest is also looking for a hotel with a local ambiance and more luxury and personal attention and is willing to pay more for it. An independent and small-scale boutique hotel often feels more luxurious than a chain hotel. We see that small-scale hotels can also respond to trends faster, for example in the area of technological development. This also appeals to today’s hotel guest. With chain hotels, it’s harder to implement new gadgets. Online booking platforms have made it easier for independent hotels to compete with chain hotels.”
An interesting development is that large hotel chains are responding to the growing interest in boutique hotels. They are massively opening small-scale and luxury lifestyle concepts, such as Accor with the Handwritten Collection, Hilton with Canopy, and Marriott with Autograph Collection. They are also investing in existing hotel concepts to roll them out on a large scale, such as Accor with The Hoxton. Chains are also entering into soft-brand collaborations with existing independent hotels. Especially since covid, independent hotels are looking for more certainty and more bookings, while a chain can benefit from the independent character of the hotel and the fact that the hotels do not have to comply to strict brand standards.
Soft-branded
‘In the next three years, about 60,000 new lifestyle and soft-branded boutique hotels are opening their doors in the United States. We are also seeing growth in the number of boutique hotels in the Netherlands. In the next three years, 29 new independent hotels are opening with a total of 4,911 rooms. And then there are the ’boutique hotels’ from larger chains, such as Autograph Collection in Maastricht and Kimpton in Rotterdam.
Website: Independent Hotel Show
