If you’re thinking about booking accommodation for your next holiday, or perhaps just a short city break, why should you go for a boutique hotel?

When you go on holiday, where you stay is as important as where you go. It forms an essential part of your holiday experience, so it’s surprising that most people don’t really pay much attention to the type of hotel they are going to be staying in for the duration of their trip. Package holidays use hotels that are virtually identical from one resort to the next. Bedrooms look the same, bathrooms have standard fittings and to the staff, you are just another tourist.

Take a risk

Chain hotels may be a safe option, but for the same price or only slightly more, you could be staying in a hotel that cares about the way it looks and makes a real effort to ensure that your holiday is as good as it can be. What distinguishes a boutique hotel from all the others?

• Thought – big hotel chains follow a simple theme; everything is the same. You could be in any city in the world, and your room, its fittings and its public areas are indistinguishable from any other hotel. Boutique hotels have thought and creativity behind them, resulting in no two being the same – even if they are owned by one company.

• Attitude – boutique attitude always puts the guest first. These hotels understand that the last thing you need is to argue over the wrong bottle of wine, bad food or poorly prepared rooms. That’s why their energy goes into ensuring that everything’s exactly how you want it, all the time.

• Rooms – a boutique hotel still has to work with the basic premise of all hotels – guests have their own room and share public areas. For boutiques, this means that the rooms have to be special and individual; places where people are happy to spend time. That’s why many boutique hotels concentrate on the size of the rooms, rather than the number. It allows them to incorporate really good bathrooms, large beds and spacious areas for relaxing. This focus on turning your hotel room into somewhere you want to spend time rather than a room you’d rather stay out of, is why everyone should try a boutique hotel at least once.

Make a difference

Staying in a boutique hotel really will make a difference to your holiday or business trip. Rather than spending your time noting the negative side of your accommodation, you’ll find yourself impatient to tell all your family and friends to go boutique themselves.