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It’s always a tell tale sign of ‘getting it right’ when one of the biggest players in the industry takes a leaf out the independents’ book.
If Starbucks started buying vintage furniture, or baking goods in-store which have not come from a central depot in a refrigerator van, you would be certain they were drawing from the approach of the indie coffee shops – not concocting that brand image from a committee room somewhere in the US-based HQ. Similarly with Hilton – one of the largest and best-known hotel operators in the world – which has decided to have a go at emulating the boutique hotel. Its new brand will be called ‘Canopy’ and will focus on medium and major-sized cities.
They’re going the whole hog: craft beers, paintings sourced from local artists and locally-sourced food. Importantly, it’s not just a corporate flutter, since the stated aim of this new brand extension is to have 100 hotels open under the new brand name within five years.
It’s easy to dismiss the idea as being a simple business exercise, and that a large transnational chain will not be able to fully pull of the independent ‘look’. But regardless of how successful the brand might be, it says something about the public’s taste for what independent hoteliers everywhere are doing.
The home-from-home feel, the curated menus and drinks lists, the thought-through decor, the quirky, individual rooms. These are the hallmarks of the independent boutique, and that Hilton thinks there is a profitable business in emulating it is evidence that a global taste for the indie hotel is burgeoning.
