Growing demand among travelers for social bubbles — suites and adjoining rooms for groups — has caught on at boutique hotels, which are offering new guest packages in response.

Courtney Hoppen, director of revenue management at Hotel Viking in Newport, Rhode Island, said groups of people and families traveling together who are in need of more space often choose alternative accommodations instead of hotels.

This sparked the idea for the hotel to book out its entire fifth floor as one reservation to give a family or group of friends more square footage, she said in an email interview.

Part of the on-property experience includes a spa to-go kit and private cocktail hour, giving guests the opportunity for safe, self-serve activities.

“Both of these experiences are private for the guest," she said. "The spa to-go kit will come with instructions on how to pamper yourself, and the cocktail hour will be very similar; a bartender will provide ‘knocktail’ service and bring a round of beverages up to the room with instructions on how to shake or stir.”

Paul Sauceda, corporate director of sales and marketing of the boutique Godfrey Hotel Boston, said the hotel, inspired by long-stay packages offered for families at resorts, created a BYOB — Bring Your Own Bubble — package.

His team recognized there was a need for people to be together, but it had to be done in a safe manner, he said in an email interview.

“A group of us, each with distinct personal perspectives, put our heads together and agreed on the amenities that we thought would be most important to us if we were going into a travel bubble," he said. "For some, access to food and beverage options were top of the list, but for others the ability to maintain our gym routine was key."

BYOB amenities include customizable room configurations on the property’s second floor, exclusive access to the hotel’s second-floor meeting room, food and beverage discounts, private access to the hotel’s fitness center and easy access to staircases.

Creating a package like this before the pandemic would not have been possible because of Boston's typically high occupancy, he said.

But with lower occupancy levels, there’s lower demand for amenities such as the fitness center.

“Since we were able to reopen our gym based on Massachusetts' reopening guidelines, we have been operating it on a reservation basis to control the number of guests in it at any given time and allow for thorough sanitization between guests,” he said. “Controlling reservations means we can easily block time for our BYOB package guests.”

The lack of group business allows BYOB package guests to have exclusive access to the hotel's meeting room.

Jennifer Rose, director of sales and marketing of the Rand Tower Hotel in Minneapolis, a Marriott Tribute Portfolio, said in an email interview the hotel created a VIP-style "bubble experience" on the hotel's 26th floor.

When the hotel opened in December 2020, the guestrooms for the first month were repurposed into private in-room dining experiences for small groups to gather.

"Once the state restrictions started to ease a bit, we thought a private and secluded floor would be a perfect way for family and/or friends to begin to come back together while considering concerns and anxieties," she said.

Guests who purchase this package have private elevator access, exclusive meeting room access and an in-room champagne kit.

This package is also attractive to business transient groups looking for privacy for their executive-level teams, bridal parties or groups where security is needed for high-profile travelers or entertainment groups, she added.

Sauceda said revenue-managing the BYOB package has been the “most controversial decision” his team had to make. They decided that because they are offering a premium service, there should be a price premium applied.

“Although, ‘price premium’ is a relative concept during the pandemic,” he noted.

So far, his team has sold the package a handful of times. They hope as demand returns, it will attract business groups who want to be together but are still uneasy about travel.

Long term, this concept, or some variation of it, will remain part of his hotel's offerings, he said.

"We won't always have the operational flexibility that we have now, so it will take some reconfiguring to make it work," he said. "One thing we all learned during the pandemic is how much we value face-to-face connections to other people and that may change the ways we live in the future."

Rose said the Rand Tower Hotel's package includes various guestroom types in the bubble, ranging from standard rooms to suites.

"Each room type is priced accordingly and has been reserved based on pricing," she said. "Based on demand — for example, a citywide conference or popular concert — an additional fee or added premium may apply to secure the floor."

The package at Hotel Viking just went live for advanced bookings, and while bookings haven't flooded in just yet, Hoppen said it's clear the demand is there.

"The demand in the Newport market has been incredibly strong, and the outlook into the summer is even stronger," she said. "With the return of the music festivals on the summer weekends, Newport is seeing [higher] rates than ever before."