Meaning & use
boutique hotel
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Meaning
nouncountable
A small, stylish hotel with a distinctive character and personal service, usually not part of a large chain.
Grammar: Takes an or an in the singular: a boutique hotel, not boutique hotel alone.
Patterns
- stay in a boutique hotel
- a boutique hotel in somewhere
We spent our anniversary at a boutique hotel by the sea.
The boutique hotel has only twelve rooms, each decorated differently.
She dreams of running a boutique hotel in the mountains.
Word forms
| plural | boutique hotels |
|---|
Common combinations
- stay at a boutique hotel
- They like to stay at a boutique hotel instead of a big chain.
- luxury boutique hotel
- The luxury boutique hotel offers a rooftop spa.
- charming boutique hotel
- We found a charming boutique hotel near the old square.
- run a boutique hotel
- He left banking to run a boutique hotel in Italy.
- book a boutique hotel
- We booked a boutique hotel for the weekend.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inn
- Inn is an older, simpler word for a small place to stay, without the designer style that boutique suggests.
- guesthouse
- A guesthouse is usually cheaper and more homely, while a boutique hotel is more fashionable and upscale.
- resort
- A resort is large and offers many activities on site, which is the opposite of the small scale of a boutique hotel.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: boutique hotel or bed and breakfast?
boutique hotel vs bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a private home or small guesthouse offering a room and a morning meal, and it is not necessarily stylish or designed.
Practice
Which place is most likely to be called a boutique hotel?
Choose one answer.
A boutique hotel is small and stylish with distinctive rooms. A huge hotel with identical rooms is the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “boutique hotel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.