LOS ANGELES—The Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA), a newly formed association dedicated to uniting the world’s boutique and lifestyle properties and the suppliers that sustain them, announced plans for developing a universal standard and criteria for defining boutique and lifestyle lodgings. Initiated by BLLA’s founder and hospitality industry veteran Frances Kiradjian, and in coordination with its Board of Advisors, hospitality industry leaders, and worldwide boutique property owners and suppliers, the new classification will create a differentiation for this fragmented sector within the hospitality industry.
“Having a special classification specifically for this sector will allow boutique hotels to compete on a more level playing field with major hotel companies and give them the opportunity to better market themselves,” Kiradjian says. “It will also meet the increasing demand of discerning travelers to find unique properties and help them distinguish the individual traits that lured them to searching out the boutique hotel category in the first place.”
BLLA is an association created to be the unifying voice of this distinctive hospitality sector. Its goal is to champion the needs of the boutique and lifestyle property industry worldwide through collaboration, communication, advocacy, and education. BLLA will guide its members including property owners, managers, suppliers, as well as travelers, through educational events and build a sustained community that exchanges ideas, shares information and has common goals.
How Sustainability Will Impact Process
What role will sustainability play in the definition of what a “boutique” or “lifestyle” property is? Kiradjian told Green Lodging News that the answer has yet to be determined but her inclination is that a property’s commitment to green practices will be part of the criteria that determine whether or not a property is in the boutique or lifestyle category.
Kiradjian said BLLA’s goal is to have its definition of boutique and lifestyle lodgings complete by the beginning of 2011. BLLA is surveying hoteliers, consumers and others in order to develop its criteria. The BLLA Advisory Board will make the final decision on the definition.
BLLA is also in the process of developing a certification program for boutique and lifestyle properties. Within the certification program, Kiradjian said, there will be questions that address a property’s green programs.
Benefits of Being Part of BLLA
According to Kiradjian, association members benefit from a number of powerful distribution channels that BLLA offers that can deliver incremental upscale revenue streams. Members will receive marketing tools, industry information, networking opportunities, corporate exposure and recognition.
John Russell, CEO of NYLO Hotels and a BLLA Board Member said, “The classification system will help to better define boutique and lifestyle property types, standards, characteristics and attributes, addressing the differences within each region, affording boutique properties a means with which to market themselves within their niche, and travelers, a simpler decision-making process when choosing their boutique stay.”
To date, there is no standard definition for boutique properties and lifestyle lodgings. Vague definitions define these properties by numbers of rooms, rather than by their uniqueness of character—whether charming, distinctive, quirky, cutting-edge, avant-garde, trendy, funky or classic—all characteristics that are of interest to travelers.
“We look forward to the professional input of our Board of Advisors together with our selected team of industry professionals, to collectively decide on the parameters for a new classification, survey properties as feasibility and acceptance, and then develop the new classification earmarked to be the new universal standard,” Kiradjian said.
Go to the BLLA.
