The Inn Inside

By Dody Tsiantar/Las Vegas

The huge, jasmine-scented, marble-floored lobby of the Venetian resort in Las Vegas is almost always abuzz with activity. As in most Vegas hotels, guests traipse to their suites through a bustling casino. To the right of the long check-in desk, though, a quieter enclave awaits. There, in a hallway accented with deep cherrywood and mirrored walls, three elevators whisk guests to a more intimate check-in area on the 10th floor of the resort's newest addition: the $275 million, 12-story Venezia hotel tower, opened last June and billed as "an oasis of tranquility." As incongruous as it sounds for a Vegas hotel, the Venezia's elegant lobby--framed by a private garden--is downright peaceful.

Not to be outpeacefulled, the owners of Mandalay Bay hotel in Vegas opened THEhotel, a 1,118-suite facility, in January. It has its very own entrance lobby, an $11 million spa and 725-sq.-ft. suites with 42-in. plasma TVs, starting at $159, about $50 more than beginning rates at the adjacent Mandalay Bay.

This is the next generation of boutique inns: hotels within hotels. These may be separate towers or buildings or at the very least floors with upgraded rooms nestled inside a hotel. Forget those concierge floors that many hotels have available, mostly for the frequent-stay crowd. These new inns within are unique facilities with distinctive personalities that cater to upscale travelers willing to pay more to avoid ordinary guests. "Hotels are saying, 'We're taking you to a totally separate experience,'" says Steve Higgins, founder of Boxport, a company that purchases products for luxury hotels. "We'll charge you more, but you'll be in an exclusive area."

Why slum it at the 452-room, $419-a-night Ritz-Carlton while you're in New Orleans, when you can opt for the more intimate 75-room Maison Orleans right next door? For $509 a night, you'll get a canopied bed, 18th century furnishings and a butler to draw your bath. Or consider the Enclave at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, with 30 loftlike rooms that start at $375. It's connected to the main building by a 10,000-sq.-ft. outdoor garden and can be reached from an underground valet garage by private elevator. "There's very little signage," says Renier Milan, the hotel's general manager. "Unless you're part of the In crowd, you won't know it's there." The just-opened Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, also caters to customers who demand the best, with its Lone Star Tower, a separate entity from two more moderately priced sections. In Bangkok, the Pan Pacific is one of several hotels that offer executive-level floors as "hotels within hotels." The 83 rooms on the Pacific Floor are designed to create a "bubble of luxury" within the property.

Getting in touch with your inner inn is spreading across top-tier hospitality brands. Take the Fairmont Washington, D.C., which touts the Toronto-based chain's premium service as a "hotel within a hotel." In addition to the 48 elegantly furnished rooms, the hotel's concierges are expected to do the unexpected. Says Fairmont Gold concierge Clarence McLeod: "We're called upon without any notice to provide last-minute miracles. Sometimes I feel like Superman. I can conquer anything." All starting at $329 a night. For the chains, creating these special sanctums is a response to the popularity of boutique hotels, which have siphoned off customers. With average room prices rising just 1.9% this year over last, says Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality-industry analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers, this strategy allows hotels to attract well-heeled customers without alienating a more price-sensitive clientele. They can do this efficiently, too, by using the same operations staff.

In essence, hotels are creating sub-brands, says marketing professor Chekitan Dev of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. "It's a subtle form of brand extension, with separate decor, separate signage and sometimes separate uniforms," he says. Le Meridien, a hotel chain based in London, adapted this thinking with the launch of Art + Tech, a design concept geared to sophisticated travelers who demand a stylish ambience as well as the latest in technology. The Lingotto property in Turin, Italy, built within a former Fiat factory, features an entirely separate Art + Tech building.

Still, are hotels within hotels real, or just a new way to promote what's there? Tia Gordon of the American Hotel & Lodging Association insists that the concept isn't "a marketing ploy" but "another level of service." She's probably right, but as Joseph Greff, a lodging analyst for Fulcrum Global Partners puts it, "It has a lot more to do with perception than reality." In the hotel business, however, a perception of distinctiveness counts a lot, especially for customers who are willing to pay for it. --With reporting by Helen Gibson/London, Sara Rajan/New Delhi and Jyl Benson/New Orleans

With reporting by Helen Gibson/London, Sara Rajan/New Delhi and Jyl Benson/New Orleans