Monday, 11 October 2021

The madness of brainless hotel branding

Hotel branding can be a bizarre business. 

The marketing geniuses behind the concept often succeed only in confusing their customers with their name choices. 

I well recall trying to check in at ibis Sydney Airport, when I was actually booked at ibis budget Sydney Airport (or maybe it was the other way around). 

Book at a Hyatt in Melbourne and you have to remember whether you are staying at the Grand Hyatt, the Park Hyatt or the Hyatt Place. 

Keep it simple people, One Hilton, or Marriott, per city. 

The other crazy idea when it comes to hotel branding is names that ae impossible to remember. 

You have to wonder which brilliant mind came up with the name of: the Ramada Encore by Wyndham Dandenong. Why not just Ramada Dandenong, or Wyndham Dandenong? 

No surprise that that hotel has gone out of business. 

Its replacement on the site has gone the simple route. It will be known as Holiday Inn Dandenong (above). Easy to say. Easy to remember.

Ace Hotel, or the Four Seasons. 

So much better than Palacio del Marques de San Felipe y Santiago de Bejucal. Which is in Cuba. Or The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. 

There is certainly a lesson there for would-be hoteliers. The message is: Do your research. Which the operators of the Hotel Swastika in Jaipur, India, clearly did not do.  

Simple is usually good. But not always. Ace Hotel is good. Four Seasons is good. ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget is not good. 

You have to wonder, too, about the owners of the Hotel Ass in Cologne, or the Hotel Kuntz in Paris. Those hotels should sack their advisors. 

# IHG Hotels & Resorts will open the Holiday Inn Dandenong in April 2022 after a $10m state-of-the-art refurbishment. 

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