Some of the larger players remain skeptical of the boutiques, which lack a worldwide infrastructure and broad range of experience.
Independent boutique hotels may lack a national reservations system, but they have a fatter profit margin than some chain operations, noted Sean Hennessey, director of the New York hotel practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Last year, when the firm made a one-of-a-kind enamel dome clock to honor the opening of its boutique in Beverly Hills, California, Mr. Ruvelson was first in line to buy it, even though he lacked a space for the clock in his own home and ended up lending it back to the boutique, where it remains on semi-permanent display.
One caveat: Like many boutique hotels our room had a sexy shower but lacked a bathtub.
Although the lakeside also affords spectacular views, prices tend to be lower there because it lacks the many boutiques and art galleries that line the bayside, said Dan Mortier, a broker-partner at Properties of Door County in Sister Bay.
Into that mix (or lack of it) comes the Varsity Hotel, a boutique establishment that feels quite unlike anything else the city has to offer – without sticking out like a sore thumb.
After several declines due to lack of an education, she got a job at a boutique where she worked for a few months.
Lacking corporate overlords, boutiques can also be nimbler on social media, using in-house blogs to promote their clothes and accessories, as well as maintaining casual presences on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram.
It would be a boutique hotel.
"We are a boutique operation," she said.
