Orlando boutique hotels drive growth by stressing personal touch

The staff of 70 at the new Delaney Hotel in Orlando’s SoDo neighborhood had a crash course in opening a hotel during its first weekend.

The 54-room hotel sold out for Aug. 23 and 24, primarily because of the college football game between the Florida and Miami at Camping World Stadium that weekend.

But there were other challenges, too. A city of Orlando certificate of occupancy, which allows a hotel to operate, did not come through until Aug. 22, about eight hours before the first guest checked in.

“That was the real pressure,” hotel president Greg Allowe said. “The night before was cutting it a little bit close.”

The Delaney Hotel is part of what has become a growing trend in Central Florida and across the U.S. Smaller, boutique-style hotels have grown in popularity as travelers and tourists seek unique experiences and personal service.

During the past six years, the number of rooms offered by independent, unbranded hotels, the category that boutique hotels fall into, has risen 15% in Orlando, according to the industry research firm STR.

Occupancy in those types of hotels, meanwhile, has risen during that same time period from 64% to 72.7%, showing a growing demand.

“People are moving away from loyalty to brands and all of those properties that come in the same vanilla wrapper,” said Michael Terry, an associate professor at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. “It’s a psychological thing where I don’t want to just have the same experience as everybody else in the room. Somebody wants to have a story to tell at the next cocktail party.”

Up until she stayed at The Delaney Hotel earlier this month, Patricia O’Neill had not stayed at a boutique-style hotel.

But now she says she will seek them out in the future.

“It’s more personal,” said O’Neill, a property manager recently transferred to Orlando from Sarasota who has stayed in hotels as temporary housing. “They cater to you more heavily and add the small touches.”

That includes a glass of wine and food delivered to her door on a recent trip, she said.

Terry says the trend of smaller hotels will continue to grow, especially as the larger hotel brands expand their own boutique-style offerings.

The Castle Hotel in the tourism district, for instance, is a boutique hotel owned by Marriott but has few Marriott-branded signs in its public areas.

Boutique hotels such as The Delaney and Edgewater Hotel in Winter Garden have different challenges than the big-brand, high-rise hotels that dominate International Drive.

Often staffed by a much smaller group, they sometimes require owners or operators to wear multiple hats, whether it’s handling the finances or even greeting guests at the front desk.

But they also have subtle advantages, said Edgewater Hotel President Mike Lanza.

“If you are looking to be a small hotel in a giant market, you need to take advantage of what makes you unique,” said Lanza, who has a staff of seven. “For us, it’s the history of the building. We wanted to restore and respect that as much as possible.”

The Edgewater has been a hotel since the building first opened on Plant Street in Winter Garden in 1927.

Lanza said he has deliberately tried to keep an old-school feel, sometimes to untenable lengths. For instance, he initially opened the hotel in 2003 with no televisions after an eight-year renovation.

The no-TV rule, however, did not last long after customers complained.

But Lanza has kept a 1920s-style kitchen and the original, hand-operated elevator intact in the 22-room hotel.

Smaller hotels must compete in Central Florida, a region that has 521 hotels and more than 129,000 rooms, many of them in large hotels that cater to tourists.

“Not everyone is looking for that kind of [large] hotel experience,” Lanza said. “There is a niche market that would rather have something more personalized.”

Personal touches are more likely to be offered at a smaller property, said Allowe, who comes from the world of traditional hotel chains, having spent 11 years operating, managing and working for Hyatt.

In the mid-1990s, he turned to smaller locations as the expanding Internet created the opportunity for unbranded hotels to reach more travelers online.

“It created the ability to find a hotel that previously couldn’t compete with the bigger properties’ promotional budgets,” he said. “I’d ask people at the time, ‘What’s the need for a [brand] flag?’ They didn’t have an answer.”

Just across Orange Avenue from Orlando Health Regional Medical Center, The Delaney Hotel makes up the majority of a 45,000-square-foot building alongside a 325-space, three-story parking garage.

Allowe hopes the hotel and onsite Delaney’s Tavern attracts both hospital staff and families of patients, along with travelers looking for the boutique experience.

A 36-year veteran of the industry, Allowe said he thinks his new hotel will be a wave of the future.

“The big-box locations, there is a need for those in certain markets,” he said. “However, they are no longer the only way to do business in the hotel industry.”

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