The Boutique Hotel is an excellently constructed set with a multitude of unique building techniques. Let me start by going through the building process. The set uses the newer 18+ Black Box, and right out the box separates the build into 14 numbered bags. The build is an extremely engaging experience, much more so than most other sets from the modular buildings series. It uses a wide array of techniques to create that diagonal look for the hotel. Even the tiling is fun - Especially on the inside of the bottom floor of the hotel, that integrates a pattern throughout the floor and a white and black tiling/rug pattern using the newer triangular pieces. The inside on the bottom floor is a little bare bones, the lack of furniture in a lobby for such a high-class establishment (and 4 room keys on the wall when there are 3 rooms in the building) takes a little away from the magic of the interior. The second floor has two rooms, both of which are fairly cramped, but I do like many of the small details and a plethora of furniture to make the building experience much more engaging. The last floor is the premiere suite, which is one massive hotel room, with a bathroom and multiple sections to the room to produce a mega suite. There were so many unique building techniques and intricacies that made this level so fun to build. The roof has a "glass" panel to make it less bare, and rims the top of the building with these snake pieces in black that fit into modified 2x1s, and at the front of the roof there's a dome build that I thoroughly enjoyed building. There is an Art Café, titled "El Cubo", a cubist art gallery with a small restaurant on top. The building uses a rich blue colour on the exterior and the interior has many details, including a reference to the town hall. The exterior of the hotel itself is lovely, and the set has a great selection of pieces. It uses the new flesh colour and sand green, which is such a unique combination. One contention I had, something that should be marked on the instruction panel, is that on step 230, there was a utilization of open-holed studs and candle pieces to construct pillars. Strangely, certain studs would fit in the top of the candle piece and form a connection, while others couldn't. It was a perfect 50/50, and I found out that others had the same issue. That was my only gripe, so other than that, my building experience was excellent. The value is also excellent, at $200 USD you get 3000 pieces, which is a pretty solid PPP ratio, (although I prefer valuing sets by weight, price per piece is a good general estimate of raw value in a set). I marked the set as a 3 in the playability aspect, but the reason why my overall is so high is that this is a modular building. It's a display piece more than anything else, and therefore we should view it as such. One other thing, I see a lot of people saying that it's sort of out of place because of the diagonal slant (I love that diagonal slant, it makes the set stand out more) but a nice pairing is to put the Parisian restaurant on the side with the Art Café, and the rooftop Café almost acts as an extension to the Parisian restaurant, it worked very well in my city display. I can imagine the green grocer would work on the other side, due to the similar colouring, but currently I just have it placed next to the town hall temporarily, and although It's not as cohesive and sticks out, it works well enough for now in the cityscape and adds a lot of life to a city.

This set is a must-have for modular collectors and is a beautiful display piece on its own. I highly recommend it. 5/5.

2022's entry to the modular building line is the Boutique Hotel. It's the largest such set in the 15 years of releases, coming in at just over 3000 pieces. It's a wonderful set to look at and build, but it's not without a few flaws (in my opinion). There are times when the building is built for aesthetics instead of function. Depending on how you feel about this may alter your opinion of this set.

Minifigures - 7 come with the set. 2 wonderful bellhops for the hotel (along with a very sharp luggage trolley!) A tourist lady with pull luggage and a parasol. A backpacker with camera, an art gallery worker, a coffee cart worker (with a small coffee cart!) and a businessman.

There are several call backs to the prior 14 modular builds during construction. Thankfully, a lot of those are noted during the build in the instruction manual. I say that because I do not have the earliest of these modular buildings, so those nuances are lost on me!

Overall - I like the looks of the building. It is very striking, especially being at a corner angle. Also striking is the color choices of the 3 levels of the building. Everyone's favorite, sand green adorns the top level, with caramel being the lowest level. The most intriguing choice is that of the fleshy coloured middle level. While it is definitely NOT a color I would have used, it actually works well with the other 2. And there are tons of new parts in this color now.

Construction - as with all the modulars, laying down tiles for the sidewalk and lower level of the building. The floor of the hotel is excellent as it uses so many corner cut notched pieces and several triangles to create an intricate floor patter in the lobby. I love this! A fancy stairwell is built leading to the next level. A luxurious dark red couch and the check in counter is also on the lower level. It is very spacious here almost too much space. The back corner under the stairs seems like a wasted opportunity to put in a table/chairs or maybe another small sofa.

The side build next to the boutique is an art gallery. It's packed with details and nostalgia to older sets. I'm very impressed how much detail and fun has been smashed into such a small space. Above this art gallery sits a small overlook with a couple tables and a small bar. This is a lot of fun. There is even a very neatly constructed palm tree in this space. HOWEVER, this is my first nitpick on space for this set - the palm tree takes up WAY TOO MUCH space! There's barely any room to even put a couple of people up on this balcony due to the enormous palm. Taking that out will be fruitful for all the LEGO people to enjoy a few cocktails.

The second level of the hotel has 2 bedrooms. I like all the builds used to make the beds, chairs, desks, nightstands, lights, typewriter, armoires and such. Excellent use of space and neat furniture. A small walk out balcony with interesting use of handcuffs to create a wrought iron effect is appreciated too.

Third level is the master suite. A very large bed with matching nightstands, luxurious chair, cool television, another balcony, old time lamp and quite the fancy bathroom! Its tiny, but it's packed with a bathtub of all things. So great! And another walk out balcony on this level too.

I will mention how great the dome looks atop the roof. It's an interesting build - even though the results seem simple, it's a great design. Also, much appreciated, is more wrought iron work, this time cleverly done by using snakes (Ninjago I believe) and a crayon element. Even simple things like this really make this building stand out.

A few other things that I liked, including more great parts usage to again create the iron work. A whip for the bottom of a stair rail and an upside down crowbar to create the railing up to the bar. Also, the outside staircase up to the bar looks awesome, and I loved how it was built. Even being able to squeeze in a drinking fountain into the side of it is brilliant.

Creating this entire set layout is a master class of LEGO triangles and angles, in order to get such a unique shape and overall angle of the building. I'm impressed how it comes together. However, that does lead me to a couple of "faults" that I have with this set.

I found that when building the upper levels, the starting base of these levels was very flimsy and often fell apart. Had I constructed this on a table, I probably would not have had such issues, so that's probably just a "me" issue. I would say the staircase is merely for show and not function. It is so very tight and if you have a figure in between levels, they are likely to be crushed as there really isn't any space to place them as it's so cramped in the stairwell, especially leading up to the second story. Placing the levels on top of each other is a bit challenging as it is not easy to line things up to sit properly. And finally, a bit of an odd situation, but when constructing the white pillars on the outside of the second level - not all of my 1x1 round pieces with holes would fit with the candle pieces. I had to sort through and find enough of them to sit on the top of the candles that worked.

Having said all of that - how do I feel about this set? Oh, it's rightfully outstanding. I really love the architecture and style of this one. The pillars look excellent, I love how the windows are all built and displayed, each with a unique way to create an arc above (and below). When it wants to, this set really packs in the details in the space it has, which is ingenious. I really liked building this one, and I'm only sad that I'm done already and have to wait another year for the next one!