The editor of i-escape.com has opened up a debate over the tired term 'boutique hotel'. Nowadays this is being used for everything from a 500-room countryside retreat to a five room B&B in downtown New York.
i-escape has come up with the boutique test. According to them, to be worthy of the term a hotel should be small, personalised, stylish, contemporary and independently owned.
Do you agree with these criteria? What springs to mind when you think of 'boutique hotels'?
(right: The Bulgari Hotel in Milan)