New boutique hotels group is seeking Canadian members

WEST HILLS, CA—There’s is a brand new association uniting the world’s boutique and lifestyle hotels, and they’re seeking Canadian members.

The Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA), formed in January, already has more than 220 members, and that statistic is growing, says Frances Kiradjian, association founder. Members include hotel brands and independent properties, plus suppliers including interior designers, marketing services, food suppliers, consultants, travel agencies and furniture restorers.

For years, Kiradjian worked with Carlson Hotels’ hotel marketing and consortia programs, but boutique hotels were always her passion.  By 2008, there were 45 boutique hotel brands on the scene.  “Somebody needed to do something—they were doing a poor job of educating the consumer,” Kiradjian says.

And now even the big brands are creating sub-brands of boutique lifestyle hotels.  Certainly, IHG has Indigo, Choice has its Ascend Collection, and Marriott has a brand called The Autograph Collection. “Our goal was to unite the world’s boutique and lifestyle hotels, something that’s never been done before,” Kiradjian notes.

The time is ripe for boutique hotels. In these recessionary times, executives wouldn’t necessarily be seen at the Four Seasons, but they can go to some fabulous boutique hotels where they pay less and get more, Kiradjian says.

She adds that the association is strong in the distribution and marketing end of the industry.  

Member advantages include the following:

• Members’ micro-site pages to provide detailed content about your company and services as well as images, podcasts and videos.
• Consumer booking engine and website.
• Blended media buys—special rates with a select group of media distribution companies
• Conferences—including an event one day prior to TRAVDEX in May on technology for SMEs.