Hip, Gay-Friendly Hotel Chains
By Andrew Collins

If the gay travel market didn't necessarily create the nation's love affair with stylish boutique hotels, it certainly helped to propel it. A decade ago, you'd have been hard-pressed to find these intimate, design-driven hotels in more than two or three cities, with San Francisco the originator of the trend and still the top destination for these types of properties. Nowadays, however, you can find at least one or two hip, gay-sensible properties in just about every major city in the United States and Canada.

Many boutique hotels are independently owned or managed, but certain hotel chains have emerged as leaders in the field, and others are quickly jumping into the game. One company truly stands out when it comes to boutique hotels, however: San Francisco-based Kimpton Group, which first began opening smaller, stylish, and more service-oriented hotels in 1981.

Kimpton runs the popular Hotel Monaco, which has branches in San Francisco, Salt Lake, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and has plans to open a branch in Alexandria, Va. Including the Monaco hotels, the company now has about 40 properties, with 11 right in San Francisco (gay faves include the Triton, Palomar, Serrano, Monticello, and Monaco). It would be impractical to list all of the stand-outs, but especially cool Kimpton hotels with particularly gay vibes and locations include the Rouge and the Helix in Washington, D.C.; the Burnham in Chicago; the Onyx and Nine Zero in Boston (along with the Marlowe across the Charles River in Cambridge); the Solamar in San Diego; the Caleo Resort & Spa in Scottsdale; and the Vintage Plaza in Portland.

The chain has also branched out into some swank resort towns, such as Aspen - home to the Sky Hotel - and Whistler, where you can roost at the Summit Lodge. New Palomar hotels have opened in Washington, D.C. and Dallas and are planned for Arlington, Va., and Los Angeles.

A big part of Kimpton's success is that it typically has outstanding destination restaurants at its properties. Some of these are quite famous, such as Wolfgang Puck's Postrio at the Prescott in San Francisco, Jan Birnbaum's Sazerac at Seattle's Hotel Monaco, and the Silverleaf Tavern at Manhattan's 70 Park Avenue Hotel. From the start, the company has enthusiastically courted gay and lesbian travelers - there's even a GLBT link on the Kimpton website with information on the company's close relationship to the gay community, reviews from gay travelers, and details on the company's Red Ribbon Campaign, which raises funds to help with HIV services organizations throughout the United States.
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