Boutique Hotel by HCH

Abstract

This chapter examines the purpose and effectiveness of a new tourism trademark, the “Boutique hotel” project, which has been designed and implemented by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels. The scope is to encapsulate the efforts of the last five years to lay the institutional groundwork for a professionally operated accommodation system of boutique hotels, a relatively new form of accommodation in Greece. This chapter will analyse the goals, terms, and conditions for defining this tourism brand and its operating system. Also, it examines in detail the structural characteristics of boutique hotels in Greece, as they resulted from a survey of the 178 hotels that had received this certification. Boutique hotels in Greece are a successful example of the resilience of hospitality businesses during the periods of both the financial crisis and, subsequently, of the COVID-19 pandemic, given that the very nature of their services and products, enables them to immediately respond and adapt to new situations and cater for evolving consumer needs, ultimately striving for survival and for the return to a new reality of sustainable tourism development.