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Fashion boutique
The property is characterised by its 265-acre championship golf course designed by top golfer Colin Montgomerie, but also features 21 contemporary-design guest rooms.
But again The Montgomerie has a distinctly niche target market: as Emaar Hospitality Group (EHG) chief executive Marc Dardenne explains, it was developed specifically to meet the growing demand for world-class golfing in Dubai.
Another Dubai property verging on the boutique is La Maison d'Hôtes, an elegant guest house in Dubai, which opened early last year and is now run by co-founders and fellow managing directors Claude Berquier and Julie Renaudie.
The property comprises 22 guest rooms, a conference room, two swimming pools, a gym and an authentic French restaurant. Renaudie explains: "We are in fact a guest house, not a boutique hotel as such, but people are not familiar with the idea of guest houses here in Dubai, so we often get put into the boutique category.
"Our focus is very much on atmosphere. The spirit here is really about personalised service and creating a relaxed atmosphere".
Championing a slightly different strain of boutique hotel, the first Hotel Missoni property, a collaboration between hotel giant Rezidor and Italian designer fashion-house Missoni, is set to open in Kuwait in 2009.
Hotel Missoni executive vice president brands and project leader Gordon McKinnon says the choice of situation was less about location and more about the Missoni brand. "Our general growth strategy within a defined group of locations is fairly opportunistic, so certainly to begin with we didn't think it was necessary to apply a city heirarchy to our development, so for example we didn't consider it necessary to do Dubai before Kuwait," he explains.
The tone is about the brand. It will focus on all the factors that typify Missoni's Italian style: fashion, food, family, fine art and so on."
"In my opinion a boutique hotel is small (25 rooms maximum), intimate and personalised. It should reflect the character of its surroundings be they cutting-edge design or historical, and above all offer specialised services that help people achieve a deeper experience of their destination."
Stephen di Renza, proprietor, Riad Numero 9, Morocco.
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