The booming hotel market in Asia is offering a greater variety of options for visitors to select the best place to stay while travelling. Rita Yu reports.

What would you prefer? Does size matter? Why does the word ‘boutique’ have such close ties to the hotel industry nowadays? What are the future trends for
hotels? Today it seems that there are many better hotel choices beyond the well-known 5 or 6-star rated brands.

‘boutique’ comes to life
Founded in the early 1980s, The Blakes Hotel, designed by celebrity stylist, Anouska Hempel in South Kensington, London is considered to be the first ever ‘boutique’ hotel. A few years later in 1984, the Murray Hill boutique hotel,
founded by Ian Schrager of Ian Schrager Hotels then signified the setting of a benchmark, opening the doors to the world of boutique hotels. “I build my hotels to put people in the spotlight, it is all about exhibitionism,” said Schrager at the time.

designer’s perspective on ‘boutique’ and ‘big’
What is a boutique hotel? Is it called boutique just because it looks and unctions like a retail store or is it something else? Definitions may vary among different
markets. However, a common feature of a boutique hotel is its intimacy of design, services and the choice of its target market.

“One of their features is their delicacy,” says Steve Leung, Founder and Director, Steve Leung Designers “Boutique hotels are usually more personalised and
stylish. Comparing with big name hotels, they usually possess very unique personality. The design of boutique hotels can hold a wider range of styles. Sometimes, boutique hotels invite different artists, designers, movie
directors to design different parts of the hotel project. Not only does this enable the hotel to become a live gallery to house all kinds of interior design, in general the possibilities for boutique hotel are more.”

“On the other hand,” Leung continues, “big name hotels usually have sets of professional practices and branding guidelines for designers, who may even have to attend specific training before even picking up a pen. They are
very attentive to details. In order to maintain big name hotel brand images, creativity has to be expressed within certain frameworks.”

the making of a big name case
Design and service tend to be of equal significance in a hotel nowadays, and paying guests are concerned with the appearance, the extra details that have been included as much the quality of the service they receive. Furthermore, while a sense of grandeur is almost de rigueur, the overall appeal must remain inviting and friendly.

The Novotel Citygate Hong Kong recently received the iF Design Award China 2007 in the Interior Design Category. To achieve the high standards of design, Novotel insisted that the designer become intimately involved in the
project at an initial stage. “We were committed to the project, for both the exterior and interior starting from day one”, says Tony Siu, Associate Director, Steve
Leung Designers, who headed the hotel project. In an interesting departure from the norm, the design of the exterior architecture of the hotel was finalised only after mock-up rooms had been built off site. As Siu added, “this is, perhaps, one of those rare times that a hotel has been designed inside out, with the focus on meeting the needs of the customer first.”

unique ‘boutique’
“Some of the big brand hotels have saturated certain markets,” says Helmut Knipp, Senior Vice President- Development, Langham Hotels International. Bill Barnett, Managing Director, C9 Hotelworks Company concurs, “when Accor opens its 300th new hotel, people expect them to do that, it’s no big deal to consumers”, he says. This is indicative of how big brand names have
come to a point that they no longer need to push the envelope in terms of design, they merely need to furnish customers with the experience they expect. In essence this becomes true for most branded hotels, they are in the processes of achieving, in Leung’s words: “a fusion of form and content into a package that does not overwhelm yet manages to retain the hotel brand’s splendour, style and personality.”

However, boutiques are fundamentally different, aiming to offer a new experience. This means that “a boutique hotel offers more flexibility in design, allowing you to experiment with different concepts,” says Yvonne Ieong, Director, and Architect, Y.I.& Associates, responsible for The Fleming, a boutique hotel in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district. Ieong says that, for a big brand name hotel, “the flexibility may be compromised as you will need to adhere to a certain aesthetic
to meet the brand identity of the hotel.”



The smaller scale of the boutique hotel allows independent operators to provide tailor-made services to customers and often to sort out problems more efficiently
unhindered by the corporate structure and associated bureaucracy of large hotel groups. There are also often more provision of built-in technologies in boutique hotels to match the specific needs of the boutique hotel guest, for example,
the Luxe Manor Hotel offers not just broadband Wi-Fi internet access, but also an internet based phone and the NXTV Infotainment System in all their rooms.

our future hotels?
According to Ieong, “there is definitely a market for more boutique hotels. The hospitality sector is growing very fast and the expectations from the public and clientele is also changing, bigger does not necessarily mean better. Boutique hotels can offer a different experience and a more intimate affair which would be an advantage in a city such as Hong Kong or Singapore.”

It seems like “boutique”, with its connotations of privilege and specialised service definitely has a role to play in Asia’s hospitality market. This seems clear with the plethora of new boutique projects currently underway in major cities across the region. Indeed, Steve Leung notes that “some of the big name
hotels are changing. New hotel brands are being developed by big name hotel groups to cater for the boutique traveller. Therefore, the definition becomes not so clear now.” The boutique brand concept can be seen in Starwood’s W Hotels
who have four new hotels in development in Asia, including locations such as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

At the end of the day, the success of ‘boutique’ will remain in the hands of the consumer, as Leung says “although sometimes I do prefer big name hotels for work, if my destination has a very good boutique hotel, I would rather go for that option.” However, he concludes that, like the majority of travellers, “the major factor which affects my decision is not whether it is a big name or a boutique hotel, but the comfort and feeling which I can get in that hotel during my stay.” RFP

Boutique
hotels are
usually more
personalised
and stylish.
Comparing
with big name
hotels, they
usually possess
very unique
personality.

Ieong says that,
for a big brand
name hotel,
“the flexibility
may be
compromised
as us you will
need to adhere
to a certain
aesthetic.”

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