Destination hotel

A destination hotel is a place of lodging whose inherent location and amenities attract visitors regardless of the route needed to arrive or the areawide features of interest. The destination hotel concept has existed at least since the 19th century and occupies a significant market share of all lodging in the world as of 2006. From the late 1980s to the present the extent of amenities and conference facilities has greatly expanded for many destination hotels. Destination hotels are also called destination lodgings and destination resorts. Considerable academic and business analysis has been conducted in the field of destination hotels. In the Arnold Encyclopedia of Real Estate a destination hotel is characterized as a place of lodging not chosen for convenience and not chosen for people in transit to other areas.

The following typically are characteristics of a destination hotel:

Amenities which are quite complete and self-contained
Upscale nature of the lodging operation
Distinctive characteristics of the building, gardens or adjacent natural feature
Activity set which makes leaving the property unnecessary

History

Since the 1800s, the traditional concept of a destination hotel has been based upon a venue which is typically remote and has a natural feature as its attraction. For example, the Kviknes Hotel in Norway is a difficult to reach remote location which provides visitors access to the scenic fjord at Balestrand. Historically there were certain built-in amenities such as gourmet cuisine, music recitals and shoreline trails; however, the amenities of modern (post 1980) destination hotels dwarf the scale of these earlier models. Many of the Las Vegas and Caribbean resort hotels have complete shopping malls, conference centers and large entertainment halls on site; thus, the contemporary version of a destination often features large on-site capital investment in activities, although the access to a local natural feature is still retained by many newer destination hotels (e.g. Hotel l'Anjajavy in Madagascar).

Historic examples

There are numerous historic venues which were well known in the 19th century, some of which survive to the present. Examples of these properties include:

Kviknes Hotel, Balestrand, Norway
Metropole Hotel, Avalon, California, USA, circa 1887 Victorian style hotel
Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, Gilroy, California, USA
Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite National Park, California.
Hotel Metropole, Vienna, Austria.

Types of destination hotels

There are several distinct types of destination hotels including:

Geographically remote locations often associated with a noteworthy natural feature such as a volcano or rainforest
urban settings
Conference center oriented
Specialized activity settings (e.g. Disneyland Hotel)
Hotels of unusual construction by virtue of being built into a specialized environment (e.g. ice hotels, cave hotels or treehouse hotels)
Boutique Hotels