Niche hotels spice up Scottsdale’s image

Scottsdale, long renowned for its luxury golf and spa resorts, havens for rich — and aging — baby boomers, is becoming suddenly hip.

Scottsdale ranks low in ‘hip’ spots

A handful of minimalist boutique hotels, modeled after the famed W brand, has sprouted in the city’s chic downtown district.

The boutique boom is changing Scottsdale’s tourism image. And its clientele.

Are the new urban inns muscling out the traditional resorts and their traditional visitors?

On the contrary, the upstarts add variety to the mix, making Scottsdale even more attractive for all visitors, according to local tourism leaders.

“There is room for both,” said David Phillips, managing director of the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort at Gainey Ranch.

“This exposes us to a different market. It will help round out the offerings in Scottsdale. Communities can get pigeon-holed if they don’t change with the times.”

The sprawling destination resorts — the Hyatt, the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, The Phoenician, Westin Kierland, and the like — provide a place where visitors can come to be pampered, entertained, wined and dined, and never leave the property till its time to board a plane for home.

They are, or give the appearance of being, in remote desert locations, far from the literal and figurative pressures of daily city life.

The boutique hotels are small and sandwiched into a busy, crowded commercial downtown area.

The new-style properties are compact, lacking such amenities as golf courses, tennis courts and a multitude of swimming pools and restaurants.

But they are just as upscale as the resorts, and they in no way tarnish Scottsdale’s reputation as a place for well-heeled travelers to vacation or stage business meetings, said Rachel Sacco, president of the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“They are enhancing Scottsdale’s image, not de-emphasizing the traditional resorts in any way,” she said.

“We need these for the future. Scottsdale wouldn’t be Scottsdale without one or the other.”

The new urban hotels — the Hollywood-fave Mondrian, yuppie hangout Valley Ho and the coming-soon W, the undisputed national niche leader — are attracting the Gen-X and Gen-Y travelers, Sacco said.

Uninterested in the more serene and relaxing resort scene, the 20- and 30-something urbanites previously stayed away from the desert city.

But hip hoteliers such as New York-based Morgan Hotel Group, parent of Mondrian, and San Francisco-based Kimpton, which transformed an old-style hotel into the trendy FireSky, are causing the yuppie travelers to notice Scottsdale.

“They are bringing a whole new demographic to Scottsdale,” Sacco said.

“They are younger, urban and looking for a different experience.”

The new crowd are just as affluent as the resort-goers, she said, and they are more likely to leave the hotel property for entertainment.

They are attracted to a vibrant night life, adventurous day-time activities and occasionally a golf outing or a pampering spa treatment, she said. They are more likely to see Scottsdale as a complete destination with a variety of things to see and do, Sacco said.

“We get people from all walks of life, but our No. 1 customer is the young, in the 30s, business traveler,” said Jesse Thompson, marketing director of the Valley Ho.

The Valley Ho fits both images. A destination resort for previous generations, the 50-year-old property was made-over into a trendy, urban hotel in 2005. Thompson has since watched several other urban properties move into the area.

But he said that’s good for business.

Having a cluster of hip hotels increases national awareness of Scottsdale’s new image — one that he said hasn’t quite caught up to reality — yet.

“Out-of-towners still think of us as a golf resort,” Thompson said.

“We’re behind the curve of a New York, Chicago, Los Angeles in density of hotels, clubs, restaurants. But they are coming.”

The Waterfront, with its complex of chic shops and eateries, will help, Thompson said.

And so will the W, slated to open in February.

Scottsdale was “an obvious choice” for Arizona’s first W, said Michael Mahoney, chief executive officer of Triyar Hospitality, which is building the signature brand. Triyar, which owned choice downtown property for some time, decided a few years ago that the time was ripe to build.

“Clearly the dynamic of Scottsdale has changed dramatically. You can see it in the sports cars, the younger crowds in restaurants, and the tourists — young, exciting people looking for a Western experience,” Mahoney said.

But he agrees with Sacco that the resorts and the urban hotels are complimentary, not competitive.

“If you want to get away from it all, you will go to Scottsdale and stay at a resort,” he said.

“If you want to get involved, you will go to Scottsdale and stay at the W.”

The ‘‘trendy” list

Mondrian

Valley Ho

FireSky

Hotel Indigo

Hotel Scottsdale

Under construction

The W hotel is expected to open in February.

Planned

1, the new eco-conscious Starwood brand hotel, is planned, but has yet

to begin construction.