Posts Tagged ‘lifestyle hotels’

Lifestyle characters revisited, Part 5

February 12th, 2011

With the recent refresh of OPUS Vancouver’s suites, and guestrooms soon to follow, we asked the fictional muses behind our five lifestyle décor schemes to author a few posts. Our fifth and final post is from Pierre, the food and wine critic from Paris.


Pierre arrives sans Pierre

I arrived from Paris today, this is my first time at this hôtel boutique called OPUS. So far, not so bad. At first the walls were … how do you say? … a bit hard for my eyes, especially after three bottles of ’86 Château Cos d’Estournel at le Cinq last night (there were four of us, but two were not drinking, the philistines.) Now that my eyes are adjusting I must say I am finding the color very stimulating – Hermès orange, but of course.

The people here are so friendly. Why all the smiling? At the front desk I met a woman named Dede who looked familiar – an American actress, I believe. Beautiful girl, but the French? Une abomination.

There was also a guy named Mike, a doctor from New York, and his filthy mutt kept sniffing at my crotch. Had precious Pierre been present (yes, Pierre), he would have snapped off her snout in an instant. But Pierre travels first class only, and Le Monde is paying for this trip.

I am here to research a story about the culinary scene in Vancouver, so I have many restaurants to visit: Campagnolo, Blue Water Café, West, Bao Bei and Vijs – and this just tonight. The bellman has offered to drive me to Gastown in the hotel’s BMW 7 Series at no charge. So I will arrive in style, but, as usual, alone.

First I think I will explore this neighborhood they call Yaletown. It’s a former warehouse district, mostly residential, and the architecture is quite unique. Ce n’est pas Paris, but moi j’adore the open spaces, the tall glass buildings and the salty-fresh air.

In fact, I feel inspired. I think I’ll head down to the water for a jog. When in Rome …

Pierre

Lifestyle characters (& suites) revisited, Part 2

January 4th, 2011


Editor’s Note: With the recent refresh of OPUS Vancouver’s suites, we’ve asked the fictional muses behind our five lifestyle décor schemes to write our next few posts. The second comes from New York doctor Mike, along with the above video showcasing the new design of his suite.

Mike gets upstaged

Okay, this is the last time I invite Anna Nicole on a trip. The little bitch has upstaged me at every turn, most recently with kee-ute Parisian guy I was checking out in the lobby while he was checking in. But he only had eyes for her, and she wasn’t exactly shy about returning the affection.

Look at her now, gnawing so innocently on that Milk Bone. Maybe it’s for the best that Steve and I are taking a break – I can only handle one princess at a time. Hmmm … wonder how he’s doing now?

Wait – my suite looks different. Feels bigger, brighter … the color is lighter. That big oak cabinet – gone! I’m liking this translucent divider. And what’s this – a king bed? Awesome.

Hey Anna Nicole, what do you say we shack up together tonight?

She doesn’t look enthusiastic. I think she’s pining for Pierre, the little tart.

At least I’m not stuck at the convention hotel this time. In Chicago I got pressured into having dinner with the other gynies, and it was so eye-stabbingly dull I faked sick and left early. An hour later, I’m heading out clubbing in a muscle shirt and tight jeans when I run smack into the guys in the lobby. “Feeling better are we, Mike?” one says, and they all crack up. Awkward.

Well, princess has to pee, so I’m going to fire up this Nespresso machine, brew a double shot, and take her down for a run – she just loves to see and be seen on the seawall. After that it’s a quick pre-party pump in the fitness room and then dancing at 560. Hey, maybe Pierre will be there …

What’s that, Anna Nicole? Sorry, sweetheart – no dogs allowed.

-Mike

The Pros and Cons of a Hotel Blog: A Retrospective

May 31st, 2010

In a recent article about social media for hotels, I argued that it doesn’t make sense for most hotels to start a blog. Blogs are time-consuming and challenging to maintain, often starting in a flurry of enthusiasm and then fading over time. An abandoned blog is like frayed carpet in a hotel lobby: it speaks of apathy and neglect and can be off-putting when stumbled upon.

My comments prompted a minor outcry, though notably not from hotel managers but from third-party web marketers, who were quick to point out the benefits of blogs to search engine optimization. Last year, a Hubspot survey reported that small businesses with a blog receive 55% more website traffic and 97% more inbound links than small businesses without a blog.

If anyone understands the value of a hotel blog, I do. It was four years ago this month that I started this blog as the General Manager’s Blog, a first in the industry. Our then-director of marketing, Katrina, came up with the idea, and I’m still mad at her. Nevertheless, I tackled my first posts with zeal, writing in a breezy style that suggested I had banged them out between check-ins. In fact, a great deal of effort went into making them sound effortless. (more…)

If the shoe fits …

April 15th, 2010

Guess which of these handsome devils is a doorman at Opus? Hint: look for a flash of pink.

Now even before you step through the doors of Opus Hotels you know you’re somewhere extraordinary. We’ve partnered with iconic shoe designer John Fluevog to outfit all male guest services employees in Vancouver and Montreal in the Porter Shoe, designed exclusively for Opus Hotels.

Says Fluevog, whose footwear fashions have been spotted everywhere from Madonna’s feet to high-fashion runways, “The Porter Shoe lets guests know that their stay and the service will be of the highest quality, but that it’s still alright to relax and have a wink of fun here and there.”

Put yourself in our shoes by ordering a pair via the in-room mini-bar menu at Opus Hotels or by entering to win a trip for two to Montreal or Vancouver complete with two pairs of Porter Shoes. A limited supply is coming soon to one of Fluevog Shoes’ ten stores in North America.

For more information visit Opus Hotels on Facebook.

Lifestyle Hotels: Gotta Have Soul

July 7th, 2009

Now that luxury is a bad word, hoteliers are scrambling for ways to reinvent their hotels without spending a whack of money. The quick fix? Simply delete all references to “luxury” in marketing materials and replace them with “lifestyle”. Magically, the hotel’s image transforms from visions of champagne baths and gold-plated toilet seats to a holistic experience involving discovery, connecting and environmental responsibility.

Travelers beware. A similar trend started about a decade ago, after word got out that boutique hotels were more profitable than other hotels. Suddenly hotels large and small were calling themselves boutique. But then a number of players tarnished the boutique reputation by emphasizing style over comfort and hiring mannequins for staff. When the big hotel chains got into the action, the boutique reputation suffered even further. Soon hotels couldn’t distance themselves quickly enough from the contemporary boutique moniker. A new buzzword was needed, and along came the next generation of boutique hotels: the lifestyle hotel. (more…)

We Want Our Word Back

June 21st, 2006

Several years ago, the term “boutique hotel” arrived on the travel scene. Today, it seems like every second hotel is calling itself boutique, from 800-room properties to highway motels to mega chains. There are also boutique salons, ad agencies, law firms, hardware stores and pet stores. Everywhere, businesses are pilfering this precious term to distinguish themselves from the big-box-style retailers. And in the process, they’re ruining it for everyone.

We want our word back. It’s ours.

What exactly is a boutique hotel? Like the word “attractive” in personal ads, the term boutique is used loosely – and often generously – in the hotel industry. To me, a boutique hotel is defined by its size (200 rooms max), its ambience (intimate), its service (personalized), its independence (no chain affiliation) and its outlets (people actually use the restaurant and lounge). The design of a boutique hotel should reflect the city it’s in. And guests shouldn’t have to stumble through revolving doors to get in, or line up at the front desk behind hundreds of cruise ship passengers, or jostle with conventioneers wearing badges and silly hats. In a contemporary boutique hotel, brass and fussy floral arrangements should be banished, along with the music of Vivaldi and portraits of dead people.

When it comes to sullying the boutique name, there are no worse offenders than boutique hotels themselves. Many offer style or substance, but few provide both. Some are built around a hot lounge scene, but service is inconsistent and guestrooms feel like an afterthought (perhaps a deliberate ploy to keep guests out of rooms and in the lounge drinking). Others offer beautiful guestrooms and great service, but the lounge is about as lively as a public library. My favourite boutique hotels have style and substance. In the US they include Hotel Gansevoort and 60 Thompson in New York, The Mondrian and The Viceroy in LA, and Hotel Vitale and The Clift in San Francisco. While not technically boutiques, W hotels and a few of the Four Seasons also do this well.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that boutique hotels are more expensive. This is partly quality related, partly market related: fewer rooms + high demand = higher rates. But it also has to do with economies of scale. Boutiques don’t order 50,000 bottles of shampoo at one time or serve 1,200 dinner guests. Uniqueness is part of the appeal, of course, and many travellers are willing to pay a premium for it. In the 1970s, the Holiday Inn’s slogan was “The Best Surprise Is No Surprise”. These days, travellers want surprises, as long as they don’t involve lost reservations or rodents scurrying across the floor.

Of course, not every hotel wants to be a boutique, and not every traveller wants to stay in a boutique hotel. Larger hotels can offer more space, better facilities, a more consistent product, and guest loyalty and frequent flier programs. At Opus we maintain that a traveller who chooses a hotel based on how many points she’ll collect toward an upgrade on her next car rental is probably not the best fit for us. There are plenty of other options in Vancouver.

Sometimes it’s fun to stay in big, grand hotels, landmark hotels, historic hotels – as long as they don’t smell musty. The largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with between 5,690 and 5,034 rooms, depending on the source (I’m not convinced management even knows). It comes with a sports arena, entertainment dome and wedding chapel. In fact, Vegas is home to 17 of the world’s 20 largest hotels. I stayed at The Venetian once (pictured above), which, at 4,027 suites averaging 700 square feet, ranks #4. Upon returning to the hotel each night (okay, each morning) it felt like I had to walk past all 4,000 suites to get to mine. A shuttle bus would have been nice. In Dubai, the upcoming Asia Asia Hotel plans to dethrone the MGM, with a whopping 6,500 rooms – a small city.

All this talk about big hotels is humbling, what with Opus’s mere 96 rooms, no sister properties, and no wedding chapel. Maybe we should become a boutique chain? This term is an oxymoron in my opinion. But some companies, like Kimpton and Joie de Vivre, have succeeded in building a collection while preserving each property’s individual personality. Buoyed by its success with W Hotels, Starwood has introduced aloft hotels, claiming on its website to be “re-imagining the classic American ‘On The Road’ tradition and giving rise to a hotel of new heights. A hotel so far above anything in its class that it can only be called by one name: aloft.” My rough translation: tarted-up motels for thrifty-but-cool travellers, with advertising copy written by a guy who used to write superhero movie trailers.

Now that the chains have stolen the word “boutique”, along with some of our best ideas, we in the boutique business better keep innovating. Fortunately, this is easier for us because we don’t have to wait for approval from corporate office. Stay tuned for advances in in-room technology, entertainment, amenities and environmentally friendly practices, along with even greater personalization.

And we best be finding another word for boutique.