Boutique hotel

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Boutique hotel

The marketing term boutique hotel comes from the USA and describes personally managed, individual, small and not infrequently luxurious hotels , as they have been more and more common in Europe and Asia since the beginning of the century.

etymology

The word boutique comes from French and means small shop or junk shop . According to the Duden and Knaur dictionary, it goes back to the Occitan botica , which means store , and this word in turn comes from the Greek term apothéke , which means storage room or magazine. As bo (t) tega or botica , the term also exists in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

In its meaning as a fashion boutique , the word has taken a meaning shift, the emphasis on small - retail instead of department store or fashion chain - has remained, at the same time - in contrast to the initial term - the owner's individuality of the range, the exclusivity, and possibly also the Stressed high price. This shift in meaning was also the inspiration behind the creation of the term boutique hotel .

history

The first boutique hotels appeared in major cities such as New York City , San Francisco and London in the 1980s . Many of them drew attention because famous interior decorators and designers took over their furnishings. So designed z. B. Anouska Hempel 1981 the Blake Hotel in South Kensington, London. Over the next few decades, accommodations of a similar concept were built in many major tourist cities - in Paris , Barcelona , Berlin or Marrakech , and later on islands and alpine resorts such as Mallorca , Santorin or Graubünden .

In the meantime, the boutique hotel has become an umbrella term, regardless of the often additional classification. This is thanks to a second parallel development: in 1979, Switzerland was the first country to introduce a certified hotel classification according to hotel stars . Other countries followed suit, partly as a legal requirement for the hotel industry, partly as a voluntary procedure, as in Germany. On the one hand, the classification serves as an orientation and binding yardstick for the guest, on the other hand, in addition to the general strengthening of the hotel chains, it contributes to the fact that the hotel landscape is becoming more and more similar and interchangeable in many criteria. The countermovement was not long in coming: In the area of ​​large hotels, design and art hotels emerged, in the area of ​​smaller hotels today individuality is sold under the term boutique hotel: as an oasis of calm , jewel or jewelry box , unique , small , fine , personally led or charming describe hotel industry and travel agencies these houses.

Furnishing

Boutique hotels usually differ from large hotels and chain hotels in that their architecture, furnishings and outdoor facilities are more personal; they are often found in extraordinary, extensively renovated historical buildings. The service is usually more personal and characterized by an individual signature, as these hotels are mostly run by the owner.

Some boutique hotels are dedicated to a particular theme or style and are decorated accordingly. Often times, individual rooms also differ in terms of the chosen theme. Although boutique hotels are mostly associated with small hotels with a small number of rooms, some boutique hotels in large cities such as London, Barcelona, ​​New York or Paris have more than a hundred rooms, and there are now also boutique hotel chains.

literature

  • Christian Brandstätter: Innovative success factors for boutique hotels in German-speaking countries , 2007, ISBN 978-3-640-50002-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Donald Albrecht, Elizabeth Johnson: New hotels for global nomads . Merrell Publishers, New York 2002, ISBN 978-1-85894-174-5 .
  2. ↑ a b Lucienne Anhar: The Definition of Boutique Hotels (English), published on December 13, 2001, accessed on April 26, 2015