Post #17 compliments of Mr. Deals…
In the Deals household there a few words that just don’t come out very often. At this point in my relationship with Mrs. Deals, when I hear one of the words it’s almost like hearing Mrs. Deals swear, a very rare occasion. Well this past week, Mrs. Deals was letting one roll off of her tongue and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty shocked.
It was the “B” word, Boutique Hotel. Now some of you readers may not know the actual meaning of the word so I’ll let Dictionary.com offer up the meaning: a small luxury hotel offering premium services, often located in a fashionable location. Anyways, for those of you who are not familiar with where I am going, outside of the chain hotels of Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, etc. there are these niche hotels also known as Boutique Hotels. The reason I was so shocked was because Mrs. Deals doesn’t have status at these types of establishments, they don’t typically offer any points, and it’s very rare that we ever actually would go to one of these let alone even look into one as being our option for lodging.
That all looks like it’s about to change. Given that our anniversary is approaching, we decided it would be nice to take a trip. What else would the Deals family do on an anniversary? Barbados is the destination that we decided on and while there are some chains, there are some boutiques that look really nice and are in great locations. Mrs. Deals actually suggested we even stay at one of these. I almost had to smack myself to make sure it was her saying this. It was in fact her and it looks like it’s going to happen. I don’t really know if she’s going to be ok with this. I mean we don’t get any points here and we won’t have status to get us an upgrade or any sort of “perks.” I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited.
Click here to view previous posts by Mr. Deals.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Another Sunday, another great Mr. Deals post. I really do look forward to these, so thank you.
A boutique hotel? No hotel points? This may be another sign that the apocalypse is near and the world may be ending in 2012. But fret not, I’m sure Mrs. Deals will still find a way to earn plenty of points on the trip via the good old credit cards.
Have a great trip!
I just recently did the same thing… But it was less of a boutique and more of a massive resort. It was Atlantis. At least I got 60% off deal but paying for Internet and no upgrades was a pain. But the special occasion was worth it. Hopefully don’t have to resort to that again.
@Yoav – The Atlantis looks really cool! I stopped there for a day when on a cruise, but looking forward to a trip there at some point! No points is hard though!
I’m going to Barbados in 2 weeks. But I’ll be staying at the Hilton Barbados. Not exactly boutique 🙂
@James – Can’t wait to hear more about it!! I found a great deal at the Crane Resort through Jetsetter actually. Contemplating staying at the Hilton for 2 nights to experience another side of the island.
I used to work for Classic Vacations, initially as a res agent, later in Europe product development.
While I’m not saying you should necessarily book these hotels, I’ll just say that I’ve never been let down (as a regular paying customer) by anything I’ve booked into hotels they represent, whether it was through them or not. (My personal favorite so far was one of their hotels in Turkey, which I did book through them after I no longer worked there.)
Anyhow, I haven’t stayed at any of these, but I’d recommend taking a look. Most of them are boutique. Of them, I recall that Tamarind was my favorite, but frankly I can’t remember quite why.
http://www.classicvacations.com/hotels/caribbean/barbados/
As always, I’d read through Trip Advisor reviews (which I haven’t done for this island).
@phraktur – glad you enjoy. Mrs. Deals assured me I wasn’t dreaming after I wrote this post.
@Yoav – I think it will be a welcome change for once. I’m sure this will be short lived though. The Atlantis is great. I went there on a company trip. Loved that lazy river
@James – Enjoy – we looked into that hotel
@Deirdre – thanks for the tip!
[…] week you read about how Mrs. Deals and I planned a little trip for our anniversary down to Barbados (with a potential stay at a Boutique Hotel). No less than 5 minutes after the decision was made that […]
I only went to Barbados once, and stayed at Cobbler’s Cove. We felt like movie stars. Dreamy.
That’s an easy one! Come to Brazil!
Here you can find different cultures, climates, go from the jungle to the beach to the mountains, visit the Iguaçu Falls and the southern part of the country