Introducing Trendy Boutique Hotels

Posted on | September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment

It is becoming more common that the most recently refurbished, not so large, hotels are describing themselves as “boutique” hotels. In the incredibly huge city of London, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, as in the many other major cities of the world, you can now find a selection of excellent boutique hotels. In the article below we discuss exactly what is a “Boutique Hotel” and where did they first appear

Boutique hotels are most often small to mid sized hotels run by a couple, small enterprise or family. However, within the last decade a few international hotel corporations, in response to the increasing demand for boutique hotels, have started to build their own. One statement that is nearly true is that all boutique hotels are individually fashioned with decoration frequently based on a theme. Such themes are frequently maintained throughout the whole hotel. Such an example could be based on a particular period of time such as the 1980s. Every now and again a theme may be used in each different room rather than the whole hotel.

Who Built The Earliest Hotel Described As A Boutique Hotel?

Boutique hotels first appeared towards the end of the 1980s in New York (in America). A few other hotels claim to have been boutique hotels as far back as nineteen eighty one, in areas such as London in Great Britain, and San Francisco (in America). The very first hotel to be described as a “boutique hotel” was the ‘Morgans’ hotel, New York, in 1984. These earlier claimants were, therefore, subsequently described as such and can not, really, claim to be the first.

‘Morgans’ hotel was owned by Steven Rubell and Ian Schrager who had commissioned the Parisian designer Andrée Putman to create a unique, highly stylized, hotel in New York. Putman created the hotel in what has become known as an “America meets Europe” fashion. Steven Rubell wished to make his hotel stand out from, what he considered to be, the mundane and plain hotels of the larger chains. He described other hotels as “department store” hotels and his own as a “boutique hotel” to show the distinctive difference – thus the phrase entered the English language for the first time.

Enjoyable Boutique Hotels In Great Britain

42 The Calls (hotel) in Leeds claims to be the first to appear in Great Britain. The Calls was a hotel built in the carcass of an old corn mill and used that as the overall theme. The hotel features some of the original corn mill machinery and is renowned for having luxurious hand made beds in its rooms.

The Blake’s Hotel in South Kensington, London, is often quoted as being one of the first boutique hotels in the world but, although this appeared before Morgans in New York, for the reasons outlined above this claim is often dismissed. Ever since the first boutique hotels appeared they have spread across the United Kingdom until they recently reached the remote island of Harris, where a boutique hotel recently opened in the small village of Tarbert, however the vast majority are to be found in London.

If you are in the process of planning a vacation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and thinking about spending some time in London it is rather easy these days to find London boutique hotels and, surprisingly it is equally as easy to find cheap hotels in London. Sometimes you are able to find a cheap boutique hotel but unfortunately this is rare.