Business columns: Why hotels keep changing their names

last updated 8 January 2015

Joe Brancatelli

Portfolio

Experienced travelers are familiar with the phenomenon of hotels that suddenly change identities, said Joe Brancatelli. “They tell tales of going to sleep in a Hilton and waking up in a Marriott.” One Washington, D.C., hotel has gone through at least seven name changes since the 1950s. Such places are called “Velcro hotels” because they switch “brand names so often that hotel signs may as well be fastened with hook-and-loop tape.” There are hundreds of such hotels around the country, and we’ll see more before the recession is over, thanks to today’s convoluted hotel-ownership system. It used to be that hotel companies “owned the buildings that flew their flags, and managed the hotels inside, too.” Today, a property company owns the building, a hotel company owns the brand name, and a third outfit manages the place. “Whenever a brand ups its standards” and demands that property owners redesign lobbies or install plasma-screen TVs, some owners “go shopping for a new sign.” That tendency accelerates during tough times, when “panicked hoteliers” ally with whatever brand lets them “cut corners” and hold down costs. Unfortunately, there is little travelers can do about all the confusion—and the lost guest rewards points.