Boutique hotels are designed to give their guests something more than a mainstream hotel can provide. What may this be? Personal attention. Boutique hotel owners and employees will go above and beyond to be sure their guests are happy with their room and their stay.

Most boutique hotels are begun through older homes that will either be torn down or turned into museums. For this reason, many of the rooms are not modernized. Owners will need to retrofit the rooms to give guests access to high speed Internet, phone lines, cable service and even private bathrooms especially if they are to compete with those big name hotel giants. Some hotels may even offer room service.

Owners of larger boutique hotels, rooms in the double digits and more, may install a fitness center, swimming pool and spa for their guests. Some hotels have an upper deck where guests/visitors can enjoy a meal while looking out at the countryside. They usually have a restaurant and bar on the lower floor/lobby area for guests to take pleasure in as well.

So, doesn't sound much different than a chain hotel i hear you say. Well for a start your hotel will incorporate a period of history or it's local surroungs and ingest them into the theme of the hotel. Local arts, crafts and furniture, will be cultivated from the local aera into the hotel. The Anasazi Hotel in Santa Fe for example, displays local southwest region culture to decorate its home.

While many hotels use their surroundings to come up with a theme, some boutique hotels stick with a time period. One such place is New Orleans. However, there are other places including a hotel in San Francisco. Hotel Union Square has a Prohibition era theme in its rooms and halls. Each room and hallway has a black granite and cream travertine tile.

That isn't to say all boutiques base their theme on the local area. The Inn of Five Graces in Sante Fe bases it's theme on the soutwest culture and mixes it with Asian culture. There are plenty of boutiues outside of the US, in cities as far away as Moscow and Singapore.

Some of the boutiques in beautiful places like Cannes and Istanbul, are in high demand. Make sure to plan ahead and check out availability well in advance if planning a trip abroad. Bear in mind you may not get your first choice booking, but some of the smaller boutiques also have a lot to offer.

While mainstream hotels offer plenty of extras, boutique hotels provide more. Even though most buildings are old, they are retrofitted for modern conveniences such as high speed Internet access, spas, swimming pools and even a fitness center. Boutique hotels, larger ones especially, will offer guests a bar and restaurant inside to enjoy.

All in all a stay at a boutique hotel if definetely worth paying the increased premium for. With top notch service, no end of luxuries, and even a bit of culture, who says a vacation has to be a blase experience.