Malta's boutique hotels: small but grand
You would not expect Prince and Princess Michael of Kent to check into a hotel that is not star-laden. Royalty is expected to stay in top-notch accommodation.
But that’s exactly what the couple did when they visited Malta in August 2018. The Kents stayed in a four-star hotel − the ritzy Domus Zamittello.
The lounge at Domus Zamittello, home of the Kents in August 2018. Photo: Terence Mirabelli
Domus Zamittello, like 18 other similarly sized hostelries in Valletta, is a ‘boutique hotel’, a term that has no precise definition, although the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a small stylish hotel, typically one situated in a fashionable urban location”.
Boutique hotels are usually small, with fewer than 100 rooms – purists say the room threshold should be no more than 30; they may or may not have a restaurant or a bar, and leisure and meeting facilities are not de rigueur. Bluntly, boutique hotels do not appear to offer much. Usually in a historic or a grand building, what they do offer is a sense of style and service.
A boutique hotel does not need to be a luxury hotel too. “Hotels do not become ‘boutique’ by charging high rates or offering over-the-top amenities,”...