Claussen's Inn!! Another small hotel I just loved staying in.
OK. You folks have convinced me. From now on I promise to differentiate between "Luxury Boutique Hotel" and "Trendy Boutique Hotel", at least in my own mind.

A boutique hotel is usually one that is crammed inside of a small, usually upscale, shopping establishment.

Although, frankly, the term boutique sounds way too affected for my taste. So I'd have to think long and hard before staying at a place that overtly uses that term.

Patrick, I think you've created your own narrow negative definition of "boutique" that doesn't really apply generally. Modern does not mean "trendy at all costs of comfort." Le Germain in Montreal is modern and trendy, but also small and comfortable. Same holds true for their Hotel Dominion in Quebec City.

One the same token, "small and refined comfortable hotels" can also be boutiques. I think the emphasis is on non-generic and "corporate," rathern then modern versus refined.

Patrick, didn't you just love the spiral staircases in the rooms at Claussens?

Huh? Ours didn't have one. As I recall we were on the ground floor. Maybe that's why?

I once told my friends living in Columbia how much I loved staying in the Pickle Factory. But they informed me it was named for a bakery that it used to be, not the Claussen's Pickles I loved.