From creative breakfasts to locally sourced linens, the boutique hotel space is an art in itself.

During the "Entrepreneurial Path: Navigating and Climbing a Sometimes-Steady Ladder" session at the 2021 Women & Hospitality Conference by TIEWN, Carolyn Schneider, partner and president of Casetta Group, said she began working in art galleries, which got her excited about creating experiences while incorporating art. This soon led her to the boutique hotel space.

"I decided to follow that path and started at the bottom as a cocktail server at the Ace Hotel in New York City," she said.

From there, she worked her way into the events department, then sales and marketing and guest experience.

Schneider found her way "into the brands I respected and wanted to work for" and eventually started her own brand and management company, Casetta Group, which has been around for roughly three years. To get started, she partnered with a group that had already purchased three hotels and joined forces to renovate those properties to create the company.

The company has two hotels that are open, Casa Cody and The Pearl Hotel, and three more set to open by 2022.

Jamila West and her husband, Akino, are the founders and operators of The Copper Door B&B, a 22-room property in the historic Overtown neighborhood of Miami.

West said she started her career as a food and beverage professional and attended the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York. From there, she got her start working at a bed and breakfast in the Hudson Valley.

That's where she picked up her "first initial thought of really wanting to take this idea of hospitality seriously, and it seemed feasible to have my own bed and breakfast," she said.

To bring the hotel in Miami to life, West said she and her husband financially partnered with the landlords of the building.

They took the route of bringing on investors with the purpose of the property being the real asset versus going the bank or franchising route, she said.

Jamila West and Akino West's priorities became taking their skill sets and "looking for a smaller property where we would have the bandwidth to do exactly what we wanted and really take that more entrepreneurial and silent investor path opposed to being in a room full of others to open up the property and expand the brand," she said.

When asked how to find art in boutique hotels, Schneider said she does "in every way."

"We have a really awesome creative director and team who has helped us to source pieces that feel really unique and local to the spaces that we're in, but I think it extends even to the linens, to the things you wouldn't necessarily think of as art," she said. "It's just that whole immersive experience."

The Copper Door B&B incorporates the art of the original art deco building built in the 1940s, "so you get these nuances from the exterior all the way into these beautiful structural components," West said.

"The biggest example of that is in our lobby," she said. "It’s fully lined with the original terrazzo. It has that beautiful sea foam green with it. [It] defines what art deco means. To be in a Miami property and just to pay homage to the history of what art and design is for Miami."

Each room of the hotel is designed differently, she said. For example, one room has a 1970s vibe.

"We were able to play with these furnitures and fixtures to lend to what the art experience was like in that particular room," she said.

West added that she's also able to use her culinary experience to "play and be creative to [design] beautiful looking dishes for breakfast."