I think that the OP's comment meant that the paper cups in the guestrooms were branded SEATTLE'S BEST, but the adjacent coffee packets were Maxwell House branded. I've seen that before myself and thought that the fine folks at Seattle's Best would be very displeased to know that. I suspect somewhere in their branding agreement is a clause to ensure that if their branding supplies are used, then their brand of coffee must be served. That's a very commonplace baseline requirement for such arrangements and one that any reasonable person would find proper.

For my part, as I reported a few weeks ago, during my last stay at the Four Points Revere MA, the coffee urns at breakfast were the tall, sleek Seattle's Best ones, but I'd bet some serious $$$s that the coffee I was drinking from those containers was your basic, run-of-the-mill food service garbage coffee. It tasted cheap and terrible.

I realize that not every consumer out there gets hung up on coffee, and I don't expect every hotel I stay in to offer barista-quality coffees to me in my room. However, it's well worth pointing out that the brand managers for Four Points had enough consumer research to tell them that their core target consumer absolutely wanted quality coffee in the rooms. They felt strongly enough about that point to make it a brand initiative and advertise the heck out of it. And, that wasn't all that long ago, folks.

To think that brand standard has withered away in such a short amount of time is disappointing.