They're small, artsy, young in spirit. Are boutique hotels your style? Everyone Talks about Boutique Hotels, But What Does that Really Mean?

Every hotel of the not-huge variety seems to call itself a boutique hotel. But what does this term actually mean? Leaving the hype and buzz aside, what is a boutique hotel? Unlike the open-to-interpretation meaning of luxury hotel, the definition of boutique hotel is quite clear. Here are some elements that distinguish a boutique hotel.

1. A Boutique Hotel Is Intimate in Size and Feeling

The #1 Defining Aspect of a Boutique Hotel: It's Petite! First and foremost, a boutique hotel is small. Most hospitality pros agree that for a property to be considered a boutique hotel, it should not be much bigger than 100 rooms. (But not too small: if it doesn't have at least 10 rooms, it's not a boutique hotel but a B&B or Inn). A Boutique Hotel Is Small...But Has a Big Personality. A boutique hotel's intimate size produces its characteristic personal feeling and heady ambiance. Some luxury travellers enjoy the compact size and enveloping atmosphere of a boutique hotel. Other travellers prefer feeling like observers in a big, busy grand hotel

Some Unique Boutique Hotels

Examples of boutique hotels with strong personalities:

• The celeb-studded, 91-room Hotel Byblos in St. Tropez on the French Riviera.

• A stylishly updated former convent with only 20 rooms, the Amalfi coastline-hugging Monastero Santa Rosa.

• A 12-room, 400-year-old gem in ancient Akko, Israel, The Efendi Hotel.

• All 21 suites of Southern Ocean Lodge open onto the wild coast of Kangaroo Island, called "Australia's Galapagos".

2. A Boutique Hotel Is an Independent Hotel (or Feels Like One)

A Boutique Hotel Strives to Be One-of-a-Kind. A boutique hotel has an independent attitude and works hard to not feel like a corporate hotel. It may be independently owned. And/or it may be a member of a luxury hotel association.

Such as:

• The Point in the Adirondacks of upstate New York: 11 antiques-filled rooms in a former Rockefeller estate, now a Relais & Châteaux hotel.

• Inn of the Five Graces in Santa Fe, New Mexico, also a Relais & Châteaux: 24 mosaic-walled suites nestled in the oldest homes in the United States, adobes from the late 1500s.

3. Or It's the Boutique Brand of a Bigger Hotel Label

Some Boutique Hotels Wear the Boutique Label of a larger hotel brand. Sometimes, a boutique hotel belongs to the boutique brand created by a more conventional hotel company.

An example:

• MGallery Burdigala in Bordeaux, France, a design-forward hotel that is part of Accor Hotels' MGallery boutique line.

4. Or It's the Boutique Wing of a Big Hotel

A Boutique Hotel Is Sometimes the Wing of a Larger Hotel. Sometimes, a boutique hotel is "a hotel within a hotel" tucked into a bigger hotel. The boutique section feels like a separate hotel. It has its own reception desk, lobby, and decor. Guests quickly sense the boutique wing's more exclusive identity, better service, and (often) newer technology and connectivity.

An example:

• Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace in Vegas, a quiet enclave within the massive Caesars Palace casino-hotel.

5. A Boutique Hotel Has a Contemporary Vibe & Spirited Guests to Match

A Boutique Hotel is Not Generic, Blah, or bland. A boutique Hotel strives to be one-of-a-kind, and has an independent attitude. Its clientele is individualistic, too. If a hotel has cookie-cutter décor and/or is filled with traveling suits, it fails the Luxury Travel boutique hotel test.

Examples of no-doubt-about-it boutique hotels:

• Thompson Hotel Toronto, a cutting-edge hotel in a forward-looking city, with a handsome, happening crowd.

• Mexico City's lively Condesa DF, whose rooftop lounge is one of the hippest hangouts in this going-out town.

• Buddha Bar Hotel Prague, a 39-room hotel run by the global music club name, with see-and-be-seen restaurant and bars.

• Elma Arts Complex Hotel in Zichron Ya'akov, an Israeli arts village, has its own state-of-the-art theatre.

6. A Boutique Hotel Has Modern or Designer Decor with a Quirky Touch

A Boutique Hotel's Design Is in Keeping with its Up-to-the-Minute Attitude. Décor in a boutique hotel is modern, often cutting-edge. Their style runs toward sleek materials and stark palettes with bold colour splashes. Fussy furnishings like chintz, brocade, tassels, and swags are not boutique-hotel hallmarks.

Some chic boutiques:

• W St. Petersburg Hotel in Russia, whose fantasy décor resembles a space-age disco.

• Vila Joya in the Algarve region of Portugal, with Buddhist art and Asian motifs in its 18 all-different rooms.

• The Crawford Hotel shares a vintage-meets-trendy attitude with its setting, Denver's Union Station, a mecca for foodies.

7. A Boutique Hotel Usually Has a Bull's-Eye Urban Setting

Boutique Hotels Tend to be in the City. Often, the small size of an urban boutique hotel affords it a chi-chi, dead-centre location in the heart of town. The hotel's buzzy boutique ambiance feels just right in its lively location.

Examples:

• Hotel48 Lex, a small, all-suites hotel, sits steps from Grand Central in midtown Manhattan, NYC.

• The Scarlet Huntington perches on tony Nob Hill in San Francisco.

• With 75 fashion-forward rooms, Quirk Hotel is the belle of the ball in Richmond, Virginia, the South's latest style destination.

8. But a Boutique Hotel May Be a Designer Country Villa

Some Boutique Hotels are Sophisticated Country Inns. You know a small town is upscale if it houses a fine boutique hotel.

Examples:

• Palazzo Margherita (shown) in sleepy Basilicata in southern Italy, one of director-winemaker Francis Ford Coppola's Coppola Resorts, is a 1904 mansion imaginatively updated by designer Jacques Grange.

• In rustic-chic Sonoma County, California, The Inn at Occidental, a Victorian manse with 16 artfully eclectic rooms, is considered one of the Golden State's best small hotels.

9. A Boutique Hotel Is Rich in Local Flavour

A Good Boutique Hotel Reminds You of Where You Are. Often, a boutique hotel conveys a strong sense of place. with a look that reflects the location's heritage.

Examples:

• The Jefferson, an elegant property in Washington, D.C., is dedicated to bon vivant and third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, with the kind of French furniture and Madeira winee he collected.

• Accommodations at Esencia in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, combine all-white minimalism with bright Mayan weavings and rugs.

• Bela Vista Hotel on Portugal's Algarve coast is a castle-like mansion with rooms done in sunny Iberian blue and yellow.

• Auberge St-Antoine on the St. Lawrence riverfront in Quebec City, Canada, displays artifacts discovered when it was built.

• You have only to look out the window at Hotel de la Cité in Carcassonne, France, to know you're within an iconic medieval fortress.

10. A Boutique Hotel Offers Ultra-Personal Service

A Small Hotel Means Better Service. And a good boutique hotel makes exceptional, personal, five-star hospitality service its mission.

• At Phulay Bay Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Thailand, every suite's private butlers is part personal assistant, part ladies' maid or valet.

• At Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, New Mexico, staffers know your name and hometown, and ply you with fresh-baked cookies.

11. A Boutique Hotel Is Eccentric, with a Sense of Humour

Boutique Hotels Are Full of Spirit. Boutique hotels express their personalities in humorous, mildly rebellious room details and guest programs. A boutique hotel can surprise and delight guests with winsome touches: a tiger-shaped faux-fur rug before the fireplace; a chocolate treat shaped like your first initial; your own (and not very corporate) temporary business cards.

Examples:

• At Viceroy Riviera Maya in Mexico, a mock-serious "soap butler" comes to your room to slice you a bar of soap in fragrances like margarita or copal wood.

• A Swede owns The Maidstone in East Hampton, New York, where every guest room offers Swedish wooden clogs for your ABBA karaoke moment.

12. A Boutique Hotel Focuses on F&B (Food & Beverage)

You can count on a boutique hotel to house an outstanding restaurants and bar that draw a city-wide crowd. Often, the hotel boasts a celebrity-chef eatery in its lobby. And just as frequently, it offers a stylish bar or lounge with a delectable modern cocktail menu.

Examples:

• Rancho Valencia, a fashionable Relais & Chateaux near San Diego, draws non-guests to its stylish restaurants.

• In Spain's Ribera del Duero wine country, the 30-room Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine offers its own delicious wines and Michelin dining.

• Many Bahamians feel that their country's best restaurant is at Graycliff, a pirate's mansion turned boutique hotel.

13. A Boutique Hotel is Often Furry, Furry Pet-Friendly

Many Boutique Hotels Welcome Four-Legged Travelers. Boutique hotels tend to have fewer rules and restrictions than bigger, more conventional hotels. Many, perhaps most, boutique hotels are very pet-friendly, welcoming your furry friend.

• See the elements of a truly pet-friendly hotel policy.

• See 29 adorable animals in our hotels with their own pets slideshow.

• Hotel Gault in Montreal, Canada not only welcomes dogs and cats, but will set up a tray with crunchy food, mineral water, and treats.

• Las Alamandas on Mexico's Pacific Coast offers stables for your horse.

Boutique...c'est chic.