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BOUTIQUE EXPERIENCE
A small hospitality company crafts its own story
Portland, Oregon-based hospitality management company Provenance Hotels owns and operates seven independent boutique hotels-mostly located in the Pacific Northwest-with more in the works in New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles, and Hermosa Beach, California, as well as a small portfolio of asset-managed properties. Here, the company's president talks differentiating his properties, making a story come alive, and the potential for lifestylemarket saturation.
How does Provenance Hotels set itself apart in a sea of 'boutique' brands?
An independent restaurant saying Tm farmtotable' is the equivalent of me bragging about having flatscreen TVs. What was an amenity becomes an expectation-it's no longer special or different . When you're local or authentic, as long as you're not Marriott or Hilton (who are coincidentally trying to become local and authentic), if you're a boutique-and that word really is meaningless anymore-whether you're a clothing store or a coffee shop, you're by definition unique and locally sourced and authentic. How do we, as an industry, redefine that? And how do I, for my hotel, stand out and become different from the guy who's doing the same thing I'm trying to do?
Is it about language or is it something else?
Ultimately it's really not about language- that's semantics. It's about experiences. We're not communicating language to guests; we're communicating experiences. The word authentic is meaningless unless you truly execute. What does authentic mean? What does art-focused mean? How do you integrate something and really make it a way of life? Our Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Washington is art everything-it's lit erally part of its DNA. It's truly about creating something unique and special.
Can you tell us about the art program at the Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery, opening this spring in New Orleans?
There's a single vernacular that everybody sees New Orleans through, and we were trying to break out of it and still be true to the market and...