Originally Posted by
evergrn
If Spark is meant to be a budget brand, then for me it just further brings down Hilton group’s cachet as a whole.
Hyatt and Marriott uphold certain standards for their least common denominators (Hyatt House, Towneplace?) that exceed places like Ramada, Comfort Inn and Country Inn. That provides a level of confidence for the entire brand.
Perhaps a Quality Inn reincarnation as a Spark will be a step up from Quality Inn. But I’d imagine it will inevitably be difficult to shed all of its past Choice Hotel image.
On the other hand, the presence of Ibis Budget and hotelF1 doesn’t seem to damage the Fairmont/Raffles/Sofitel/Mantis parts of Accor’s portfolio, and F1 is more downmarket than the Choice stuff.