Stylish urban hotels cater to not-so-rich At moderate prices, the cousins of ritzy accommodations get hip By Salina Khan - USA TODAY: 7/31/00 Travelers don't have to pay a lot to stay at a boutique hotel anymore. A growing number of urban hotels now feature trendy decor, whimsical amenities and unusual services -- from complimentary tarot card readings to in-room sound machines that mimic sea waves -- for half the price of many boutique hotels. With rates starting between $65 and $130, these more moderately priced boutiques share the same emphasis on style and decor pioneered by ritzier cousins such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts' W Hotels and Kimpton Group's Hotel Monacos. Hoteliers say they're targeting travelers of all ages who want to stay in unusual hotels but are on tight budgets. ''It's really populism,'' says New York hotelier Ian Schrager, who helped introduce the segment in 1984 and now owns and operates 16 boutique hotels. ''As the concept matured and showed that it has legs and viability and is not something just for the rich, it's permeating all different price points.'' Schrager's Hudson Hotel is to open in New York in October. Daily rates will start at $95, well below the city's $186 average. Eric Makos of Yankton, Ore., says he stays at Ace Hotel in Seattle because ''there's some urban adventure involved.'' The hotel with low-platform beds, stainless steel bathroom fixtures and mountain scenery murals is popular with travelers in the music and entertainment businesses. Rates start at $65. ''It's not the land of the traveling salesman,'' says Makos, president of Seattle-based Town Compass, which creates electronic directories for the Internet and handheld computers. Other examples: * The Grafton, West Hollywood, Calif. Rates start at $125 at the '50s-style Grafton, which has a 10-foot water wall in the lobby, an ''urban suite'' with graffiti walls and a complimentary music library. ''I wouldn't be surprised if people add to the graffiti,'' designer Toni Peck says. A futurist reads tarot cards in the lobby a couple of days a week. Plans call for showing old movies at poolside. It opened last month on Sunset Strip and courts entry-level workers in the entertainment industry as guests. ''The upper-end is getting crowded and leaving open the larger part of the market,'' says owner John Fitts, president of Outrigger Lodging Services. * The Wave Hotel, Miami Beach. The hotel incorporates the wave theme of nearby South Beach through deep blue sofas with S-shaped seats and curved backs, computer-generated abstract paintings, and machines that play wave sounds. Rates start at $155, but the 66-room hotel often offers packages. Guests who stay on Friday and Saturday through October can stay Sunday for free. Continental breakfast and two tickets to the Crobar club are complimentary. * Hotel Del Sol, San Francisco. A converted '50s motor lodge painted bright yellow, red-orange and blue outside, the hotel surrounds a courtyard with a pool, hammock, orange trees and tables topped with tile mosaics. Rooms are furnished with denim-covered chairs and big paper gerbera daisies in colorful vases. ''The Hotel Del Sol is a perfect story of taking an ugly duckling and making it the happiest building in the city,'' designer Oren Bronstein says. It's one of 19 Northern California hotels operated by Joie de Vivre. Rates at five of them start between $99 and $129. Some travelers say they frequent boutique hotels because they get personal attention at an affordable price. Odarka and Burton Vincent say they returned to the 44-room Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco this year because they were pleased by the service of an employee who took the time to give them directions to local sites and introduce them to the rest of the hotel staff. ''He goes out of his way to make you feel at home,'' says Odarka Vincent of Whippany, N.J. Hoteliers say designing a boutique hotel on a shoestring can be challenging. Designers usually use unconventional materials, such as corrugated cardboard, aluminum and denim. Ace Hotel owners say they painted the walls white instead of wallpapering them and used uncommon ways of lighting to add personality. Boutique hotels are drawing attention from major hotel companies. Starwood introduced its W Hotels chain two years ago. Marriott says it's in talks about forming a relationship with the Kimpton Group, which operates 29 boutique hotels mostly on the West Coast. Designer Colum McCartan says he's helping pick out colors, fabrics and wood stains for a Hampton Inn in the San Francisco area. ''They're probably getting away from floral and dowdy fabrics for the first time,'' McCartan says. |
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