A sprinkle has turned into a storm. When the smaller passive hotels seemingly began to bloom a few years ago, the demand for someplace unique to stay was still an undertone.

For some edifying reason, we began to follow their progression back in late 1996. The meager incidence of some Bauhaus furnishings together with a funky, irregular bathroom was sufficient to make a hotel eligible for a guest to have an interesting lodging experience, and for that guests were even primed to excuse a shortage of evolved expectancies. No room service? No fitness center? No pool? No turndown mint? No doorman? No sophisticated business facilities? No spa? No problem. Rather that than the ‘no surprise' galaxy of the cookie-cutter or big box hotels.

The hotel giants, and the hotel industry in general, didn't really take these impractical hotel romantics too seriously. After all, they reasoned, the business traveler will always put consistency ahead of originality.

Eight years later, it is clear that the ordinary hotel trade drastically underestimated the demand for originality and character.

The tide has radically shifted. These internationally thriving Boutique Hotels and Resorts have left the global chains remodeling and repositioning in their vapor trails. To the delight of each newly recognized boutique hotel and resort in one of the world's premier destinations, the norm is being raised a few levels, and not just in terms of architecture and design.

The best spa, the coolest lounge, the finest food, the sharpest, sexiest room service, the most ingenious new features such as vacuum plumbing, wireless everything and the in-room mini deli; in brief, the most exciting assortment of services and amenities are offered from the hotels that were not too long ago considered the outcasts.

Genuine Boutique Hotel gems, especially in the world's most magnetic locations, now distinguish themselves not just by being individual but by being the best - no exception.

The Sam Houston Hotel in Houston, Scottsdale 's CopperWynd Resort, or BaanYin Dee in Phuket, all are boutique, and all are the archetype mentors in their respective regions. Some, such as the Mountvista Hotel in Queenstown, have completely outgrown the customary hotel model and morphed into something, which for want of a better depiction, can be described as a boutique destination hotel.

The choice and the quality of the authentic boutique, both hotel and resort, is incessantly on the increase. And the winner of this on-going ‘genuine' and ‘ significant ‘ competition is of course you, the guest.


John Sears is Executive Vice President and COO of Boutique Hotels & Resorts International®. A career hotelier, John is authoring "Hear2Serve, the hoteliers guide to uncompromising service". John visits over 200 hotels a year in search of the ultimate boutique hotels. He can be reached at John.Sears@boutiquemail.com