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Fashion boutique
You want to know you have proper hygiene, you're close to the area where you're going to do business, its safe, it's secure, it's more going back to the basics of hoteliers, and les to do with the flash and pizzazz that the five-stars and the six-stars and now the seven-stars concentrate on. So that's not our target".
However La Maison d'Hôtes' Renaudie feels it is more a question of spirit than social standing: "It's difficult to analyse the type of guest you can fit with this kind of product. Certainly big chains have an attractive aspect when people need something quickly. But I'm not sure that this is really a question of the social levels of people, it's more a question of personality.
"You have some people who don't like surprises. They have their habits and they need to be around things they recognise. Maybe that's their way of feeling at home, feeling comfortable. Then you have other people who prefer to have something different, something personal. It's a question of spirit.
Orient's Khan agrees. "Young, rich fast-car-driving guys - you would not be able to encourage them to come to a property like this," he shrugs. "But there will always be those who have travelled a lot, who have seen it all and aren't looking for the glamour of the reception desk or the height of a building.
"We are a property for those interested in an intellectual, cultural experience; those who want to be recognised, not just thought of as a room number.
So perhaps choosing boutique over brand is a state of mind, rather than a state of finances; either way, the chains do not worry boutique hoteliers.
Indeed, Net Group's Monassar welcomes their input. "Big name hotel chains are not a challenge; on the contrary, most of the time the big chains are also the oldest players of the hotel industry, therefore we value their experience," he says.
"But Burj Al Salam and all our future properties are created in places where the nature is still virgin, and those big names are not present because the same location would not have allowed their kind of properties."
"The meaning is different in different countries, so it's hard to have a global definition. But the spirit behind our guest house is to welcome people in as if you were welcoming them into your home. There is the same service as a hotel, but it's far more personal"
Julie Renaudie, co-founder and managing director, La Maison d'Hôtes
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