Boutique hotels going strong in America

New York

JANE and Greg Hills were visiting New York City when they grabbed a drink in the lobby bar of the Dream Downtown, a boutique hotel in Chelsea. As the full room pulsed with music and guests, the couple had an epiphany: Dream should run their new hotel in Durham, North Carolina.

"We had been talking to all the major brands, but we wanted someone innovative, creative and entrepreneurial," Ms Hills said of Dream, a relatively small company that operates 16 hotels. "The banks wanted us to go with someone m…