You know that joke-interview question that makes the rounds of conversations all the time: “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”
I asked a version of that question to a panel I moderated last month: “If you could sum up your own personality and lifestyle as a hotel, what hotel would you be?” Essentially, “If you were a hotel, what hotel would you be?”
It’s a fun exercise, isn’t it, especially in this renewed era of brand launches?
For those keeping track, yesterday’s Hyatt Studios launch marks the fourth major brand launch of the year according to my super-technical calculations, behind Spark by Hilton, Handwritten Collection from Accor and Sonesta Essential from Sonesta.
Brand executives often talk about the ideation part of brand creation, and I’m sure this type of personification is an exercise they go through when establishing brand parameters. I remember years ago at a brand conference, the brand had cardboard cut-outs of the personas they had built around their brands, and one guy was called “Bleisure Bob,” though I can’t for the life of me remember which brand invented him.
We definitely are in another period of brand invention, following a few slow years. Right now the launch trends seem to skew toward midscale, utility brands — particularly ones that can support both family and business travel. Hey, construction numbers support this, too.
But of course, there’s always room for flair and individuality, with brand companies increasingly adopting soft collection brands.
I posted a LinkedIn poll asking readers to weigh in on “if you were a hotel brand, what brand would you be?” so hop on over and take that.
But here I’m asking you to get more specific: Choose that specific hotel that absolutely defines you. Are you dependable, clean and easygoing, like the Hampton Inn Hendersonville, Tennessee? Are you vast and contain multitudes, like The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo? Maybe you’re inaccessible yet outdoorsy, like the North Rim Lodge my colleague Terence Baker wrote about earlier this week.
And maybe you’re midscale and a solid utility player, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
This exercise might be most fun if you consider it in two parts: First, find that hotel that describes you exactly as you are today. Next, pick the one that is your aspiration.
Think of it this way: Can a place where you want to stay and experience also describe the person you want to be? Or the person you already are?
Wow, now we’re getting deep!
In reality (which, honestly, we took a wrong turn from reality in about the second paragraph of this blog), we are different places at different times. Monday through Friday, I’m definitely a Hyatt Studio — upper-midscale, extended stay, I have a fire pit outside I like to relax by and I choose healthy snacks usually. But on the weekends, I think I’d call myself the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Chicago: Trying new things while still being dependable, a little quirky, likely getting into a fun renovation project every couple years. And someday, I will be that inaccessible yet rewarding North Rim Lodge every day — hiking solo into the Canyon by day, relaxing under the stars by night.
I'd love to hear yours. Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.
Return to the Hotel News Now homepage.