Room with a point of view

That was then. Fred Kleisner,CEO of Morgans NY,the first “boutique” hotel,cautions though. “One doesn’t glue a chair to the ceiling of the lobby and claim to be a design-driven boutique hotel,” he says.
As more and more hotels claim to be boutique,one wonders: what constitutes boutique? No hard and fast definition exists. Perhaps we know what boutique hotels are not. They are not the luxury of a homogenised Victorian stand-alone bathtub in every room,nor are they the opulence of a grand,impersonal lobby or over-sized banquet halls on expansive properties. It is a move away from the mass market to the market of one.

“To be truly boutique,these hotels need a totally new attitude,operating philosophy and amenities. The operating philosophy must be centred around serving the guest in a proactive,slightly sassy but respectful way,” says Chekitan S. Dev of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University,NY.
Boutique hotels are intimate and personal — a home away from home. “They usually use design as their USP,with the opportunity of experimenting and redefining what is considered as standard hotel design. Hotel design in concept should address and expound on the cultural identities of cities and the urbanism they exist in,” says Manjit Rastogi,managing director of Delhi-based design firm,Morphogenesis.
Boutique hotels are the tailor-made suit of the hotel industry. In search of India’s evolving boutique experience,we profiled four properties across the country to figure out what makes a hotel boutique.

Designed to disconnect
360 is for the investment banker who wants his Blackberry to stop beckoning him; it is for the socialite who wants to do away with her hair tongs or for the artist in search for inspiration without interruption. How so? Simple. Let there be no light said Jamshyd Setna,owner and the man behind the vision. “Limit the amount of people that go to the mountains . Have a limited footprint with sensible people,” says Setna who opened the doors to author Ian McEwan and celebrity chef Christine Manfield. The appeal is simple as is the design,minimise the distractions and maximise the views. Mumbai architect Bijoy Jain’s concept of one solid wall made of dry local stone and top-to-bottom glass panes on three remaining sides allows for camping in class—bearskin rug and all,with fine dining galore. 360 curiously sits on a plateau surrounded by peaks —Nanda Devi stares straight at you and the solar panels at the edge of the plateau juxtapose. This piece of prime property is no happy coincidence of nature. 360 sits atop a rice field —and the owner,a retired military man has no intention of selling it. During our visit,this pristine backdrop was abruptly interrupted repeatedly by the sounds of explosions. “They’re building a road,” says sarpanch Umeed Singh,who has only last month received the village’s first wireless phone. This is at odds with what 360 has created —it has pioneered the concept of luxury in the mountains with limited outside connection. But the encroaching sound of development is edging nearer. How does the discerning traveler disconnect then? Will 360 still be an untarnished spot of non-development? Unlikely. But they have plans to offer something newer still. How? “By going greener,” says Kabir,360’s go-to-guy.

Location is key
It’s in the thick of it —evidenced by the clatter of hooves and the rhythmic clanking of cycle rickshaws — but to the unsuspecting traveller,Hotel Raas,located in the walled city of Jodhpur,is a mirage. After all,it is in the middle of Makhrana Mohalla. Can you imagine a five-star hotel in the middle of New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk? Hotel Raas has boldly gone where no luxury hotel has before: into the maze of by-lanes,across Sadar Market and the Sun City’s famed clock tower. In a nutshell in the centre of it all — bang in the middle of the chaos. “Previously even I would not go inside the Walled City much. The bigger hotels do not live and breathe in the Walled City,” says owner Nikhilendra Singh.
Boutique hotels pride themselves on going where the bigger chains have not gone before and Raas is evidence: just a few hundred feet through Raas’s imposing gates is view of the famed Mehrangarh Fort. But not all’s rosy: how to stay profitable when bigger chains around Jodhpur command attention and are well known? That too when the hotel’s policy is not to advertise,to be more of a “word of mouth” sort of place. To top that off there are no boards advertising the luxury behind those antique doors. Is this exclusivity another emerging trend in the market?

The “au naturel” trend
Doing away with the plush hotel room and the electronic key card that opens the door is one thing,it is quite another to be mounted atop a tree with fine linen,oversized beds and fancy rainforest showers. The Tree House Hideaway located in the thickness of Bandhavgarh National Park is not your average accommodation. For one,living involves a walk up a tree into a tree house. As for your dose of luxury “we don’t overdo it,” says Gauri Singh Rathore,general manager. In fact it’s so close to nature that room service is a no-go. Should guests get hungry they have to march down to the Watering Hole. Dinner is no elaborate affair. “We try to convince the guests to eat fresh food sourced locally,” says a staffer. But that’s no easy task — to cater to Western needs,the errand boy has to collect from a market 200 km away. How then is this luxury,asks the curious. To hear and experience the sounds of nature. A no-TV,no-music policy aids in that direction. There is also the locally-made wooden furniture to help get closer to nature.

Sell a gimmick
Tired of sightseeing or choosing your meals? Just follow the rules — you will have to spend a minimum of five days at Swaswara. It’s pitched as a unique holiday where you can rejuvenate and discover your inner-self. How? A resident artist imparts painting lessons,you begin your day with asanas closely monitored by a yoga teacher,an ayurveda doctor diagnoses your doshas offering appropriate remedies and then there’s the chef teaching you how to prepare all things good and natural for the soul. “This place has a combination for everything,but you are allowed to do what you like most,” says Katia Zavidoova from Russia. She wanted a holiday where she could relax and skip the tours of the magical temple town of Gokarna. Aiming beyond the often-seen ayurveda and yoga packages,Swaswara insists guests find themselves through art: in fact they even have a resident artist. “Art is a way of meditation. When you are involved in painting or making an object,your mind gets diverted,” says Jyothi Alva,the art counsellor. For those looking deeper still,there is the heady combination of art and yoga. “Some find it difficult to express their innermost feelings through words. Art Yoga helps them break the shell,” says Alva. The idea is to find inner peace and yoga maestro Raghunathan K.C. tells us that the most popular class is stress management. And for the really wired,there is the Panchakarma where guests are not allowed out of their villas.

Changes are taking place
“The traveler is becoming more sophisticated. The perception is that the boutique hotel is more luxurious and therefore a greater service than the average 500 room hotel,” says Asian hospitality trend analyst Konstanze Auernheimer of STR Global,based in Singapore.
“People visualised India as a country of dust and grime but that’s no more after the success of the Incredible India campaign. What’s more is that we don’t have enough facilities,we have limited rooms,” says Rajji Rai,president of Travel Agents’ Association of India. The boutique hotel option creates more rooms at a lower cost.
Take the costs associated with putting up an altogether new property. “The costs are 3 to 4 times higher because of land acquisition prices. Boutique hotels are housed in already existing properties – land costs are skipped — that’s why the surge in their supply,” says Rai.
There is also the increased demand. “Boutiques are hotter: style,distinction,warmth and intimacy are the key words that make a difference,” says Pankaj Sahni,owner of Artoholics gallery in Delhi. “Paris,London and New York have plenty of boutique hotels but we have many coming up here too. And they are no less luxurious than the ones abroad,” says gallerist and socialite Rasika Kajaria.

Is it here to stay?
“As the traveller,international or domestic,evolves and becomes more globalised,the boutique segment will play a crucial role in fulfilling the desire to have unique experiences specific to each location and culture rather than having a prefabricated modular experience,” says Inderpal Singh Kochhar,managing director of Sewara Hospitality and Development,Rajasthan.
Boutiques are in vogue. “There seems to be a worldwide phenomenon of individual travelers to shift from the larger to the smaller. The presence of the boutiques has actually motivated the big players to give a more boutique experience even if their properties are larger,” says Samir Uberoi of Designer Holidays.
Enter the sceptics. “Boutique is such a misused word these days — we stay away from the B-word,” says Samrat Banerjee,general manager at the Manor in Delhi. Nonetheless if bespoke was the catchword of the 1990s,boutique is the word du jour.
_with Apurva,Milind Ghatwai and Priyanka Pereira