Boutique and lifestyle: What’s in a name?

Boutiques and branding were a big focus during the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference last week. The conference set independent against chain; lifestyle (which canny hotel veteran Richard Kessler suggested was lower-scale than 3- and 4-star boutiques) against boutique; owner-operator against franchisor. The networking was non-stop, but there was no news of deals, let alone a new brand.