Boutique hotel

Boutique hotel is a term used initially in North America and the United Kingdom to describe small hotels which have typically between 10 and 100 rooms in unique settings with upscale accommodations.

History

Boutique hotels began appearing in the 1980s in major cities like London, New York, and San Francisco. The term was coined by Steve Rubell in 1984 when he compared the Morgans Hotel, the first hotel he and Ian Schrager owned, to a boutique.

Description

Many boutique hotels are furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. The popularity of the boutique concept has prompted some multi-national hotel companies to try and capture a market share. In the United States, New York City remains an important centre for boutique hotels clustered about Manhattan. Some members of the hospitality industry are following the general "no-frill chic" consumer trend, with affordable or budget boutique hotels being created all around the world. Boutique hotels are found in London, New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles. They are also found in resort destinations with exotic amenities such as electronics, spas, yoga and/or painting classes.

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Inc. is an American hotel and restaurant company. Founded in 1981 by William (Bill) Kimpton and led by Chief Executive Officer Mike DeFrino, it is the largest chain of boutique hotels in the United States. The company's headquarters are in San Francisco, California. All its properties are located in the United States.

Most Kimpton properties are marketed under their own independent names as boutique hotels; however, in 2005, the company launched two sub-brands within the company's brand: Hotel Palomar and Hotel Monaco. Each hotel has a restaurant or bar that is marketed as upscale or trendy. The company's loyalty program is called Karma Rewards.Fortune listed it as the #11 best company to work for in 2015. Under contract, the company also manages and operates hotels owned by other entities.

December 16, 2014, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced it would acquire Kimpton for $430 million in cash. IHG will retain the Kimpton brand within the U.S. and expand it globally. As a result of the acquisition, seven of Kimpton's nine hotels in San Francisco departed the brand in July 2015.

Hotel Monaco (Washington, D.C.)

The Hotel Monaco Washington is a 183-room high end boutique hotel at the corner of 7th and F Streets Northwest in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C.. Hotel Monaco is one of ten Kimpton hotel properties in the Washington Metropolitan Area and is located across the street from the National Portrait Gallery and the Verizon Center. The hotel opened in the summer of 2002 and was named one of the eighty best new hotels in the world in 2003 by Condé Nast Traveler. In September 2010, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust acquired the Monaco Washington DC hotel for $74.0 million.

Architecture

The Hotel Monaco is located inside the neoclassical General Post Office building, a National Historic Landmark constructed in 1839 that was the first all-marble building in Washington and patterned after the Roman Temple of Jupiter. The hotel, listed on the Historic Hotels of America, occupies an entire city block between 7th and 8th, and E and F streets. The four-story building is separated by a courtyard. One half of the structure was designed by Robert Mills, designer of the Washington Monument, while the other half was designed by Thomas U. Walter, one of the architects for the United States Capitol.

Monaco

Monaco (ⁱ/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/; French: [monako]), officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco), is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco has an area of 2.02 km² (0.78 sq mi) and a population of about 37,800; it is the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. Monaco has a land border of 4.4 km (2.7 mi), a coastline of 4.1 km (2.5 mi), and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m (1,859 and 382 yd). The highest point in the country is a narrow pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward, which is 161 metres (528 feet) above sea level. Monaco's most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. Through land reclamation, Monaco's land mass has expanded by twenty percent. Although small, Monaco is very old and quite well known, especially because of its status as a playground for the rich and famous, who are a spectacle for tourists and an economic engine in the Mediterranean. In 2014 it was noted about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires, similar to Zürich or Geneva.

Monaco (name)

Monaco is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Monaco (band)

Monaco were a side project of New Order bassist Peter Hook. Together with David Potts, the only remaining member of Revenge, the band was formed in 1995. The group is best known for the 1997 single "What Do You Want From Me?" and the album from which it was taken, Music for Pleasure, which sold over half a million copies. Hook and Potts currently work together in The Light.

Follow-up album "failures"

In 1999, Polydor Records rejected Monaco's follow up album, the self-titled Monaco, due to the radically changing trends in music at the time in a money saving move reducing their artists to the more popular music. Papillon Records agreed to pick up the album, though the planned single release of "I've Got A Feeling" was recalled in the UK due to sample clearance issues. Despite favorable reviews, the album was released with almost no promotion at all; it is now sought after as a collector's item and fetches fairly high prices on sites like Amazon.com and eBay.

Break-up, reunions and The Light