WSJ: Boutique Hotels Spread

The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article about the spread of boutique hotels to smaller markets in the US. In “Boutique Hotels Expand to Smaller American Towns“, writer Esther Fung notes that:

Hotelier Ian Schrager introduced the concept of the boutique hotel in the 1980s, and the category, also known as lifestyle brands, eventually fanned out to smaller cities such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, New Orleans and Austin, Texas.

The article goes on to discuss Hilton‘s new mid-scale Tru brand as well as Marriott‘s future plans.