Originally Posted by
keeton
And as a result, the CY brand is now very inconsistent. Add to this the almost total lack of elite recognition makes for very good reasons to avoid the brand. Some individual CYs may be viable (and even desirable), but they are tainted by the reputation of their unrenovated sister properties dragging down the brand image.
But Hilton Garden Inn got the formula exactly right for a mid-tier brand. Yes, some freshening up of older properties will need to occur due to wear and tear but no radical re-do of the concept will be required.
1) MI is pushing hard to have CY's all convert quickly - I believe at this point (going off memory here) over 85% of the hotels have been brought up to the current standards
2) Yes HGI continues to be ranked #1 (but they did dip to #2 last year) for quality rankings in the tier but it's the brand with the oldest standards when it comes to decor - I'm certainly the folks in Mclean are working on this very item but it's never quick and easy to refresh a brand....or look at it this way - MI did a brand refresh in the early 90's when HGI was hitting critical mass in terms of distribution, HGI and CY were pretty close in terms of product but the segment quickly built upon this and made CY the old brand....Hyatt while building their distribution took the threat of aloft seriously and has forced CY to refresh the brand again....HGI at this point has some serious decisions to make (unfortunately it's never quick or easy to refresh a brand with a sizeable amount of distribution, especially when there are outside owners/different managers involved)