Small hotels aim to capture top end customers

Brownes Townhouse and Brasserie, on St Stephen's Green, Dublin, is one of a handful of new boutique hotels in the city cornering an ever increasing share of the top end of market.

Brownes is probably the most stylish and best located of the new generation of small hotels. It occupies one of the finest Georgian houses on the Green, a few doors from the Shelbourne Hotel and close to Government Buildings and several corporate HQs.

Although run as a private and discreet place to stay, it attracts top business people, as well as socialites and film stars. Owner Barry Canny says the success of Brownes is partially based on the fact that it can offer a more personal service than the big four-star hotels. The availability of a high-class restaurant at ground floor level is a considerable asset to the bedroom business.

Brownes has 12 guest rooms, four of them elegant suites which are in constant demand. The main suite, the Thomas Leighton, occupies most of the first floor. It has ornate ceilings, a huge Georgian fireplace and three bay windows opening on to a balcony, which overlooks St Stephen's Green. The antique furnishings include a king-size bed which folds away and which once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. The suite can double as a boardroom and is also ideal for entertaining.

Other suites have antique four-poster beds and ISDN facilities to handle communications. All the rooms are individually designed and furnished, and unlike many Georgian houses, have air conditioning.

Brownes advertising promises "the comforts and style of a country house right in the heart of the city". Its room rates are "very realistic", according to Barry Canny. They range from £100 per night for a single room up to £400 for the main suite.

Before Brownes opened, more than £1 million was spent on renovating and restoring the building, which dates from 1790. It was owned up to three years ago by the Order of the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, which was founded in the early part of the 17th century to stop "the barbarous practice of duelling".