When someone mentions boutique hotels, what typically comes to mind is a quaint establishment with charming rooms, often boasting upscale amenities and personalized service. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with this classic image, we’re eager to shake things up by drawing inspiration from a broader range of unique properties. Let’s explore some incredibly creative boutique hotels that break the mold and might just spark fresh ideas for your own.
By combining the unexpected with the familiar, you can create a distinctive experience that not only sets your property apart but ensures every guest leaves with a story to tell and memories to cherish.
Located in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks, Trails End Inn’s unique selling proposition is rooted in enhanced cozy vibes! After a day of exploring the plentitude of nature trails surrounding the property, vacationers can recuperate in rooms outfitted for their unique tastes…and budget! Each room is cozy and well-decorated but varies by amenities, from shared to private bathrooms, and fireplaces to kitchenettes.
Inspiration: By offering a variety of rooms for different features and budgets, Trails End Inn makes its property accessible to a wider variety of guests. This diversifies their customer base and guarantees more bookings! The online booking engine showcases their property’s unique offerings and highlights different room types and their standout features, making it easy for guests to find and book their perfect stay.
A self-proclaimed pocket hotel, Talbot Commons is reminiscent of pocket parks, known for their small size. With only 11 rooms, Talbot Commons is undeniably small but huge in character. This historic property was built in 1955 as a Sunday school and fellowship hall. Today, it boasts spacious, well-appointed rooms and modern amenities such as smart TVs and high-speed internet. But do you know what you won’t find here? A front desk. Talbot Commons is a contactless hotel from beginning to end: online reservations only, no hotel staff, no front desk, and automated guest check-in.
Inspiration: Talbot Commons is ideally suited as a contactless hotel because of its location between a charming downtown and historic business district. Everything guests desire is only a short walk away. Is going completely contactless right for your property? There is definitely space in the market; many guests are accustomed to Airbnb and Vrbo, where everything is online and contactless for most properties. It provides guests with a greater sense of independence and convenience. And saves you the cost of staffing!
The name says it all! The Local Motel and Shops cater to those travelers who want to experience a new place like home. Each room is tastefully decorated with a decidedly Pacific Northwest feel. Their website not only lists popular attractions and drive times, but features an agenda guests could follow to optimize their two-day stay. It makes it easy to imagine yourself staying there.
Inspiration: Besides promoting their local town, The Local is a destination in its own right! Other boutique properties can take inspiration from how The Local has leaned into diversifying their income by providing shops and services that serve the larger community. They also very cleverly lease these storefronts to third-party businesses to further boost their bottom line.
Who doesn’t love a theme room? In the case of Hotel Philco, the answer is “no one” because there is literally a room for everyone. Love football? Tuck into the season with a stay in a room decked out in Bills decor, including a yard line rug. Perhaps a rustic cabin vibe is more your jam; check out the cabin room and check into a backwoods getaway! Whether you want to glam it up, step into Christmas any time of year, visit the tropics, or celebrate beer, Hotel Philco has the room for you.
Inspiration: Hotel Philco is successful because each room is completely committed to its theme (they must have had a heyday decorating!). And it’s really clever! This is something any hotel can do with a little ingenuity and inspiration. In addition to attracting locals, Hotel Philco must have a great returning guest rate for those who want to try more than one room out. For hotels intrigued by this route, do your market research to determine popular themes before going whole hog. After all, a bacon-themed room might not be everyone’s sizzling idea of a getaway!
Found Hotel caters to urban adventurers and curiosity seekers. Guests can choose modern and clutter-free, private rooms or shared rooms with bunkbeds. While shared rooms are reminiscent of a hostel, Found Hotel is on another level with well-appointed dorms that include free Wi-Fi, toiletries, and lockers for backpacks. Need to work while you’re away? A co-working space is also onsite.
Inspiration: Found Hotel provides a shared space where guests can connect and share travel tips and stories. Small hotels can take note and transform their lobby space into a place for conversation. You can even provide comfortable seating and conversation starters, such as tourism and coffee table books or boardgames. Shared rooms are also an interesting idea that maximizes your sleeping space!
Is your boutique hotel ready to embrace creativity and innovation? It all begins with tech. The right tools make turning these creative ideas into reality easier. A property management system like WebRezPro can help you seamlessly integrate these concepts into your operations, ensuring that every aspect of your guest experience is flawlessly executed.
Ancillary Services: With WebRezPro, ancillary products and services can be sold with room reservations or separately, making upsells easy and providing guests a way to personalize their stay experience. Add-ons can be promoted within your booking engine, complete with images, so they sell themselves! They can also be attached to certain room and rate types to ensure they are offered to the right guests.
With an integrated POS (point of sale) system, ancillary services purchased during a guest’s stay are automatically charged to their room bill, so guests don’t have to worry about having their wallet on hand. The ability to efficiently manage ancillary charges is key to maximizing revenue and providing a seamless and enhanced guest experience.
Packages: Bundling a stay with special amenities and services is a great way to provide guests with a hassle-free, unique, and easy-to-book experience. With flexible rate management tools, you can create any kind of package you can imagine! You can sell your packages online and even allow guests to make selections within packages. Behind the scenes, you can automatically post ancillary components to the right revenue accounts and track package performance.
Activity Bookings: With activity bookings, guests can easily reserve unique experiences from outdoor adventures to local tours. By integrating this functionality into your property management system, you can create and provide a host of activity packages, making your property more appealing and memorable, while boosting your bottom line.
Flexible Online Booking Engine: A secure online booking engine gives guests from all over the world easy access to booking your hotel. Whether you’re offering a standard (but charming) selection of room types, or a unique combination of accommodations—from cabins to shared rooms to suites—WebRezPro offers flexible availability search functions, including real-time filters and close-match results.
The presentation of your booking engine is also important. It should be customizable to your brand to gain customer trust, and feature big, beautiful slideshows to show off and sell your rooms. The booking process must be intuitive and easy to complete on desktop and mobile—and don’t forget automatic booking confirmations!
Self-service Options: In addition to online bookings, help guests help themselves with other self-service options to support guests’ independence and flexibility while freeing up your administration time. Guests are becoming more adept at self-check-in, either online or via kiosks, and mobile room keys eliminate lost keys and are one less thing for guests to manage. Guest messaging is increasingly important as the majority of guests are comfortable with making requests and communicating digitally rather than face-to-face or over the phone. And that communication works both ways; by leveraging automated messaging, you can send guests check-in instructions, welcome notes, and even upsell offers at the right moment. Guests can also access a digital concierge for local recommendations, service requests, or quick FAQs—all from their mobile devices.
Integrated Tech Stack: A frictionless guest experience is the result of a well-integrated tech stack with your property management system at the core. When your hotel systems, including the likes of your POS system, OTA channels, guest messaging platform, and smart room systems, are connected to your PMS, your data can be put to work automatically. System integration saves staff time (they no longer have to be the middleman duplicating data manually) and streamlines operations, which in turn creates a seamless experience for your guests.
Anytime, Anywhere Access: Implementing innovative ideas requires efficient management, and that’s where anytime, anywhere access comes in. With a cloud-based property management system like WebRezPro, you can oversee your property’s operations from any location, at any time. This capability ensures you’re maintaining control and keeping things running smoothly, no matter where you are. This is especially essential if you’re providing a completely contactless experience, like Talbot Commons.
The sky is the limit when it comes to creating a memorable experience that will leave your guests raving for more. With the right vision and support, you can truly put the unique in boutique.
