When people describe independent boutique hotels, they often highlight small details: the wildflower bookmarks you get when you check out a book from the library at The Betsy in South Beach, or the extensive vinyl record collection at The Verb in Boston.
To win over event planners, many independent hotels feature features that can’t be found elsewhere, such as the garden grounds at Orlando’s Lake Nona Wave Hotel, which features sculptures from the Lewis Collection, including those by Henry Moore and Fernando Bote Luo’s works. Attendees could enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres under the shade of palm trees at Arturo di Modica’s Rushing Bull, the Wall Street icon’s twin.
In this age of chains and consolidation, many planners are looking for independent hotels that pride themselves on flexibility, creativity and authenticity.
For planners at automotive products company Moxi, Big Sky Resort in Montana was able to do what most hotels can’t – change the conference flooring from carpet to hardwood. “Some of our stakeholders like to push boundaries,” she said. “Without debating the request, the service team understood its importance and impact and responded quickly, even welcoming outside vendors.
“The hotel chains are either in trouble with approvals or they simply refuse to accommodate you,” she added. “Because Big Sky is not bound by brand standards that stifle creativity, they can provide the flexibility that demanding clients demand.”
local inspiration
New England is a bastion of small, independent hotels and inns, with conference groups choosing the area for its beauty and charm.
The owners of The Groton Inn, a small boutique hotel in North Boston, have made it their mission to embrace the community’s thriving local arts scene. They sponsor a locally run gallery in the lobby, with curators offering guided tours of the artworks, and offer a range of art-related activities for conference groups, from tastings and painting team-building sessions to painting classes held outdoors.
At Cape Cod’s Classic Ocean’s Edge Resort in Brewster, chefs use custom crates to bury lobsters in the ground to make New England-style clam cakes, and participants can take a private tour of neighboring Brewster Flats, the largest in the United States oyster flats
It’s these types of experiences where the hotel’s events and culinary teams, inspired by the destination and unencumbered by corporate menus and purchasing restrictions, define the group’s independent hotel landscape. The hotel becomes an experience.
“We’re hearing from meeting planners that their stakeholders are increasingly looking for immersive experiences, and hotels are events An integral part, not just a background.
Pricing and Service
None of this will cost a lot, planners say, and they have more negotiating power than hotel chains with standardized pricing.
“Independent hotels are not bound by the same boilerplate terms found in large hotel chains,” said Bonni Scepkowski, president of Stellar Meetings & Events. “In many hotel chains, the go-to answer to redlining anything is ‘We’re not allowed to do that.'” These decisions are made at the corporate level, and typically the hotel teams themselves cannot overturn them.
“Of course, if the business is deemed valuable enough, it can be upgraded and changed – but that’s a game I don’t want to play.”
