Originally Posted by
Eastbay1K
I'll accept your premise in your opening sentence if you accept my statement that the if CP is upscale, then the scale is broken.
The scale is fine if it's just for it's intended use: to differentiate brands for developers.
Personally, I've never seen a hotel group that actually uses the terms to market to consumers because they are rather ludicrous. Terms like "upper midscale" and "upper upscale" are dumb but they work within the context of the hotel development world.
You will occasionally see the adjective "upscale" used in consumer marketing. But, that's just an advertising buzzword and not a direct connection to the development term.
Originally Posted by
shorthauldad
Sorry, but in non-marketing-speak, what does that actually mean?
Honestly, it doesn't mean much outside of marketing.
The development scale (midscale --> upper midscale --> upscale --> upper upscale, etc) helps potential hotel developers know where a property fits within a hotel group. Generally speaking, the higher up on the scale, the more money it costs to open the hotel because there are more required amenities (gym, restaurants) and the qualities of materials (hard/soft goods) will be expected to be better.
Then, aside from the scale you have the "lifestyle" nonsense. To me, that's just a way for some hotels to differentiate themselves from your basic business/airport hotel with generic rooms. Specializing in wellness or curated local experiences is silly (to me) but lots of folks seem to care. It's all just marketing, though.
Then, there are service levels like limited, select, and full service. Service levels tend to match the development scale, but not always. Consumers are far more likely to see service levels used in hotel descriptions because they make more logical sense. Most people can understand that a "select service" hotel only have some but not all the amenities of a full service hotel. (Example: A select service hotel might have a restaurant but no valet parking.)
Finally, hotels can be designated as historic. That term carries a certain cache to some folks and therefore sometimes warrants higher rates.
All in all, it's amorphous and confusing. A single hotel can have multiple descriptors: An historic, select service, upper-upscale, lifestyle hotel.