WASHINGTON -- The
parent company of Preferred Hotels & Resorts changed its name
to the Preferred Hotel Group to capitalize on the name recognition
of its core brand.
The group, which
provides marketing and technology support to independent hotels, is
also adding a brand called Boutique that will focus on that market
segment.
Explaining the name
change, President and CEO John Ueberroth, who acquired the company
last year when it was named IndeCorp, said, We came up with
Preferred Hotel Group because Preferred is a long-time,
well-respected name that will easily lend itself to other marketing
programs down the road, such as Preferred Club for frequent
guests.
The name IndeCorp
didnt describe what we did, he said.
The Boutique brand
will join the groups existing collections of hotels around the
world that are marketed as Preferred Hotels, Summit Hotels &
Resorts and Sterling.
Ueberroth explained
that the new brand, which will focus on representing boutique or
lifestyle hotels, began life at Kimpton as Boutique Lodging. He
said, It was a [Web site] they put together about five years ago.
They had about 300 hotels at one time, [but] Boutique Lodging was
not something they were spending a lot of time on.
So Ueberroth bought
it.
As part of the
Preferred Hotel Group, Boutique will represent what Ueberroth
called unique hotels that have a personality of their own, that are
basically 100 rooms or fewer.
As it rolls out the
new collection, Ueberroth said the company also is taking steps to
better differentiate its existing brands, which came together under
a corporate umbrella due to a series of acquisitions.
Preferred was put
together by North American hotels over 20 years ago [to counter]
Leading Hotels of the World, which was mostly European hotels,
Ueberroth said.
Originally a
hotel-owned group, it adopted a growth strategy in 1999. It
incorporated and called itself IndeCorp and, in 2001, bought Summit
Hotels & Resorts and Sterling Hotels.
They are all
somewhat alike, Ueberroth said. You could go with just one brand.
But we think there are differences.
Under Ueberroths
plan, Preferred and Summit will be more clearly defined.
To contact
reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].