Friday January 5, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 01 |
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Friday, Sep 05, 2008
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Hip, Gay-friendly hotel chains |
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| Hip, Gay-friendly hotel chains | ||
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by Andrew Collins -
SGN A&E Writer If the Gay travel market didn't necessarily create the nation's love affair with stylish boutique hotels, it certainly helped to propel it. A decade ago, you'd have been hard-pressed to find these intimate, design-driven hotels in more than two or three cities, with San Francisco the originator of the trend and still the top destination for these types of properties. Nowadays, however, you can find at least one or two hip, Gay-sensible properties in just about every major city in the United States and Canada. Many boutique hotels are independently owned or managed, but certain hotel chains have emerged as leaders in the field, and others are quickly jumping into the game. One company truly stands out when it comes to boutique hotels, however: San Francisco-based Kimpton Group, which first began opening smaller, stylish, and more service-oriented hotels in 1981. Kimpton runs the popular Hotel Monaco, which has branches in San Francisco, Salt Lake, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and has plans to open a branch in Alexandria, Va. Including the Monaco hotels, the company now has about 40 properties, with 11 right in San Francisco (Gay faves include the Triton, Palomar, Serrano, Monticello, and Monaco). It would be impractical to list all of the stand-outs, but especially cool Kimpton hotels with particularly Gay vibes and locations include the Rouge and the Helix in Washington, D.C.; the Burnham in Chicago; the Onyx and Nine Zero in Boston (along with the Marlowe across the Charles River in Cambridge); the Solamar in San Diego; the Caleo Resort & Spa in Scottsdale; and the Vintage Plaza in Portland. The chain has also branched out into some swank resort towns, such as Aspen - home to the Sky Hotel - and Whistler, where you can roost at the Summit Lodge. New Palomar hotels have opened in Washington, D.C. and Dallas and are planned for Arlington, Va., and Los Angeles. A big part of Kimpton's success is that it typically has outstanding destination restaurants at its properties. Some of these are quite famous, such as Wolfgang Puck's Postrio at the Prescott in San Francisco, Jan Birnbaum's Sazerac at Seattle's Hotel Monaco, and the Silverleaf Tavern at Manhattan's 70 Park Avenue Hotel. From the start, the company has enthusiastically courted Gay and Lesbian travelers - there's even a GLBT link on the Kimpton website with information on the company's close relationship to the Gay community, reviews from Gay travelers, and details on the company's Red Ribbon Campaign, which raises funds to help with HIV services organizations throughout the United States. A smaller, more regional chain that has also captured the fancy of Gay travelers in recent years is San Francisco's Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which runs 28 hotels and inns in the Bay Area, with properties in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Marin County, and the Napa Wine Country (there's also one property, the Hotel Angeleno, in the tony Brentwood section of Los Angeles). A great hallmark of Joie de Vivre is that the company offers a tremendous range of prices, with both affordable budget options like the Commodore and the Phoenix, and more upscale ones such as Pacific Heights' snazzy Hotel Drisco and the Embarcadero's stunning Hotel Vitale. In the middle, you might try the Hotel Rex (themed after the literary salons of the 1920s and '30s) or the charming Spanish Colonial-inspired Hotel Adagio, with its terrific Cortez restaurant. But all of these places offer plenty of value and distinctive decor. One of the originators of the boutique-hotel trend was Ian Schrager, who is still well-known today for having opened such shrines to high design as New York City's Royalton, Miami's Delano, and the Mondrian in West Hollywood. He designs his hotels with Philippe Starck, and they are all now branded as part of the Morgans Hotel Group. Other Morgans hotels worth checking out are the Hudson and Morgans in New York City, the Clift in San Francisco, the Shore Club and soon-to-open Mondrian in Miami, and the St. Martins Lane and Sanderson hotels in London. Even some of the world's larger hotel chains have developed intriguing boutique-style properties over the years. Many of the properties in the Marriott's Courtyard group are fairly typical mid-price business-travel hotels with interchangeable looks, but Marriott has also installed a number of its Courtyard hotels inside distinctive, historic buildings with cool, urban locales. These properties tend to offer comparatively reasonable rates along with rooms, restaurants, and even bars with distinctive decor and amenities. Some great examples include the downtown Courtyard by Marriotts in Pittsburgh, Providence, Omaha, San Diego, Denver, Columbus (Ohio), New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Nashville, St. Petersburg, Fort Worth, and Houston, as well as the Boston Tremont Courtyard. Marriott's Renaissance chain, which is more upmarket than Courtyard, also operates a number of relatively smaller properties with swank, boutique-y ambiences. In New Orleans, there's the Renaissance Pere Marquette and the Renaissance Arts Hotel - the latter occupies a 1910 warehouse. Opened in 2005, the Renaissance Las Vegas pays homage to the Rat Pack with stylish retro-fabulous rooms and a super restaurant, ENVY Steakhouse. The hotel has no casino but is within a short drive of several that do, and it's located right beside a monorail station. Renaissance also has several distinctive historic properties of note, among them the Renaissance Mayflower in Washington, D.C., Renaissance Cleveland, Renaissance Pittsburgh, Renaissance Providence (to open in March 2007), Renaissance Battle House in Mobile, Ala., and the Renaissance St. Louis Suites. Probably the most famous major chain among fans of chic designer accommodations is W Hotels, part of the much larger Starwood Group (which also runs Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, and Four Points). These sleek, futuristic properties have become famous for their uber-cool appearances and funky lounges and restaurants. The W is about to open see-and-be-seen branches in ultra-Gay Fort Lauderdale and South Beach, as well as in Scottsdale and Vieques, Puerto Rico, and just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, in Hoboken, N.J. W Maldives just debuted on the ever-trendy island chain in the Indian Ocean, and W's will open soon in Barcelona, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Other members of the W Hotel group that have a particularly strong Gay following include Chicago (especially the Lakeshore location), Dallas, Honolulu, Montreal, New Orleans (especially the French Quarter one), New York City (especially the Union Square and Times Square locations), San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Sydney, Australia . There are also Bliss-brand spas at the New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles locales. InterContinental Hotels (which also runs Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and several other brands) recently developed Hotel Indigo, thus far with two properties in Chicago, one in Atlanta's Gay-popular Midtown area, one in downtown Dallas, and one by Houston's shopping-intensive Galleria. Indigos are planned for Sarasota, Fla., and Ottawa, in Ontario, Canada. These are relatively intimate properties with lots of cushy amenities (DVD and CD players), and in keeping with a common hip-hotel theme, pets are encouraged. Sometimes a larger mainstream chain property that you wouldn't associate with trendy, intimate digs offers a slick sister hotel that fits the bill. And fortunately, if you're a guest in the smaller, boutique establishment, you're often free to use the facilities of the larger neighboring hotel. An excellent example is the Lofts in Columbus, Ohio, a snazzy and historic 44-room property right beside - and operated by - the much larger Crowne Plaza. Rooms here have high ceilings, Aveda bath products, exposed-brick walls, and luxe Frette linens, but guests can also cross the lobby motor court to reach the Crowne Plaza, with its extensive facilities and 24-hour staff. Another favorite in this category is the 30-suite Enclave, a collection of deluxe, spacious suites that's adjacent to and operated by the trendy Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. Both of these are terrific properties, as the Hilton is quite snazzy and contemporary in its own right. But the loft-inspired Enclave captures the personalized, one-of-a-kind sensibility of a boutique hotel, with soaring floor-to-ceiling windows, beds with feather-down comforters, private concierge service, and huge whirlpool tubs. The Enclave even offers playful, Gay-oriented "Frisky on Fifth" packages that include a two-nights' stay, evening cocktails in the bar, passes to the museums at Balboa Park, and welcome baskets with sensual massage oils and soaps. Look for more chains to begin unveiling exclusive, boutique "wings" as they continue trying to distinguish themselves to savvy, discerning, independent travelers who demand style and one-on-one service. If history is any indication, this latest trend will resonate strongly with Gay and Lesbian travelers. Andrew Collins is the author of Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA and eight additional travel guides. He can be reached care of this publication or at OutofTown@qsyndicate.com. |
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