Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Hotels and Places to Stay > Choice | Choice Privileges
Reload this Page >

Quality Suites/Clarion Hotel/Clarion Suites

Community
Wiki Posts
Search

Quality Suites/Clarion Hotel/Clarion Suites

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old Feb 28, 2018, 4:19 pm
  #1  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
Quality Suites/Clarion Hotel/Clarion Suites

Anyone know of these brands called Quality Suites, Clarion Hotel, and Clarion Suites? They are all conversion brands, that I know. I know Clarion debuted in 1987, and some guide I read ages ago said Quality Suites debuted in 1985.
purplenightskylovertv is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 7:25 pm
  #2  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
Originally Posted by Will Stonehocker
Anyone know of these brands called Quality Suites, Clarion Hotel, and Clarion Suites? They are all conversion brands, that I know. I know Clarion debuted in 1987, and some guide I read ages ago said Quality Suites debuted in 1985.
Quality Suites is not a separate brand. It's just how they label a Quality Inn that's mostly or completely suites of some sort. (Suites in Choice brands may just mean a partial room divider between the sleeping area and a sitting area, or they may mean actual two-room suites.)

Similarly, Clarion Inn, Clarion Hotel, and Clarion Suites are not separate brands from each other. They're "sub-brands" if you wish (at least now; I don't know if at some point in the past they may have been considered more separate).

The only one that seems to be a different brand (per the icons on the Choice Hotels website) is Comfort Suites, which has a very different logo than Comfort Inn. There's only logo for Clarion, and there's only logo I've seen for Quality. (The one Qualify Suites I've seen, which has since converted to Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, had the same look logo as Quality Inn uses. It had/has true two-room suites, btw.)

And then, it depends what countries you're talking about. Because overseas, there is Comfort Hotel, which I don't think I've seen in the US. There's also Clarion Collection overseas.

I know one hotel that converted from Comfort Suites to Comfort Inn & Suites (because not enough of its room were suites for Choice to want them to keep the Comfort Suites name) and then to Clarion Inn, which started with a bistro-style quasi-restaurant but is morphing into a free breakfast buffet (morphing all too slowly!). It's a three story multi-building outdoor corridors property in coastal SoCal (where there are tons of outdoor corridor properties).

Regarding now vs the past: I can imagine when Choice had way fewer brands, I might have distinguished what are now sub-brands more as separate brands perhaps, but as they added more and more brands, that wouldn't have made sense any more, so they would have "consolidated" into sub-brands of brands. That's just a theory. I don't know how to look up the logos that Choice used in 1990 to see how the division of brands was then compared to what it is today. Hmm... that just got me thinking, I wonder if people sell old Choice (and other hotel program) directories on eBay? (I may have a printed Choice directory somewhere at home, but if so it's probably no more than a decade old, which wouldn't be old enough to have big differences in branding from today, I would think.)
strickerj likes this.
sdsearch is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 7:34 pm
  #3  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
Originally Posted by sdsearch
Quality Suites is not a separate brand. It's just how they label a Quality Inn that's mostly or completely suites of some sort. (Suites in Choice brands may just mean a partial room divider between the sleeping area and a sitting area, or they may mean actual two-room suites.)

Similarly, Clarion Inn, Clarion Hotel, and Clarion Suites are not separate brands from each other. They're "sub-brands" if you wish (at least now; I don't know if at some point in the past they may have been considered more separate).

The only one that seems to be a different brand (per the icons on the Choice Hotels website) is Comfort Suites, which has a very different logo than Comfort Inn. There's only logo for Clarion, and there's only logo I've seen for Quality. (The one Qualify Suites I've seen, which has since converted to Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, had the same look logo as Quality Inn uses. It had/has true two-room suites, btw.)

And then, it depends what countries you're talking about. Because overseas, there is Comfort Hotel, which I don't think I've seen in the US. There's also Clarion Collection overseas.

I know one hotel that converted from Comfort Suites to Comfort Inn & Suites (because not enough of its room were suites for Choice to want them to keep the Comfort Suites name) and then to Clarion Inn, which started with a bistro-style quasi-restaurant but is morphing into a free breakfast buffet (morphing all too slowly!). It's a three story multi-building outdoor corridors property in coastal SoCal (where there are tons of outdoor corridor properties).

Regarding now vs the past: I can imagine when Choice had way fewer brands, I might have distinguished what are now sub-brands more as separate brands perhaps, but as they added more and more brands, that wouldn't have made sense any more, so they would have "consolidated" into sub-brands of brands. That's just a theory. I don't know how to look up the logos that Choice used in 1990 to see how the division of brands was then compared to what it is today. Hmm... that just got me thinking, I wonder if people sell old Choice (and other hotel program) directories on eBay? (I may have a printed Choice directory somewhere at home, but if so it's probably no more than a decade old, which wouldn't be old enough to have big differences in branding from today, I would think.)
Interesting...
purplenightskylovertv is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2018, 10:42 am
  #4  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
i have heard that some quality suites have the two-room suites just like embassy. only difference, embassy is more competent than quality by choice hotels.
purplenightskylovertv is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2018, 2:05 pm
  #5  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
Originally Posted by Will Stonehocker
i have heard that some quality suites have the two-room suites just like embassy. only difference, embassy is more competent than quality by choice hotels.
There was a Quality Suites in Santa Ana CA on Hotel Terrace (near SNA "John Wayne" airport) that had two-room suites. It got deflagged a few years ago, then went indie (as "CW Suites"),and is now a Country Inn and Suites (part of Radisson Rewards). So there's at least one Country Inn & Suites now with two-room suites. And, btw, that property is just down the road from an actual Embassy Suites. (It refurbished somewhere along the way, but I'm not sure if it was while they were indie or only once they decided to become Country Inn & Suites.)

But the there was more difference than that between Quality Suites with two-room suites and Embassy. For one thing, all Embassy's I've seen are tower designs, while the one Quality I've seen with two-room suites is a sprawling multi-building two-story motel design. Also, the Embassy Suites two-room suites are be bigger than the two-room suites at this ex-Quality. (I stayed there many times when it was a Quality, and I've stayed there a few times since it became Country Inn & Suites. I never stayed during the indie "CW Suites" phase in between, because I'm all about hotel points, and you don't earn any at most indie hotels.).

Last edited by sdsearch; Aug 19, 2018 at 2:12 pm
sdsearch is offline  
Old Aug 20, 2018, 7:11 pm
  #6  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
Originally Posted by sdsearch
There was a Quality Suites in Santa Ana CA on Hotel Terrace (near SNA "John Wayne" airport) that had two-room suites. It got deflagged a few years ago, then went indie (as "CW Suites"),and is now a Country Inn and Suites (part of Radisson Rewards). So there's at least one Country Inn & Suites now with two-room suites. And, btw, that property is just down the road from an actual Embassy Suites. (It refurbished somewhere along the way, but I'm not sure if it was while they were indie or only once they decided to become Country Inn & Suites.)

But the there was more difference than that between Quality Suites with two-room suites and Embassy. For one thing, all Embassy's I've seen are tower designs, while the one Quality I've seen with two-room suites is a sprawling multi-building two-story motel design. Also, the Embassy Suites two-room suites are be bigger than the two-room suites at this ex-Quality. (I stayed there many times when it was a Quality, and I've stayed there a few times since it became Country Inn & Suites. I never stayed during the indie "CW Suites" phase in between, because I'm all about hotel points, and you don't earn any at most indie hotels.).
interesting. i have not been to an embassy, a country inn/suites, or a quality hotel since when i was a little guy, but i believe you.
purplenightskylovertv is offline  
Old Oct 5, 2019, 2:25 pm
  #7  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
I heard someone say something among the lines of an old directory, I need to see the scans.
purplenightskylovertv is offline  
Old Oct 6, 2019, 1:12 pm
  #8  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Window Seat
Programs: National Executive, HHonors Gold, IHG Platinum, Hyatt Visitor
Posts: 2,495
There was a Quality Suites in Rancho Cordova, CA which was purpose built. I stayed there once in the 90's. It was the usual "suite" concept - cooked to order breakfast, etc. Definite step down from an Embassy Suites at the time but basically tried to do the same thing. It was a Hyatt House for a while and is now a Doubletree.

Also regarding Clarion hotel. The "short" tower of the Atlantis Hotel Casino in Reno, NV was built as a Clarion Hotel. Before that the lodging was "out back" in motel style buildings and had Quality Inn branding. Over time as the property expanded, they did not continue branding with Choice.
storewanderer is offline  
Old Oct 7, 2019, 4:55 pm
  #9  
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 587
Originally Posted by storewanderer
There was a Quality Suites in Rancho Cordova, CA which was purpose built. I stayed there once in the 90's. It was the usual "suite" concept - cooked to order breakfast, etc. Definite step down from an Embassy Suites at the time but basically tried to do the same thing. It was a Hyatt House for a while and is now a Doubletree.

Also regarding Clarion hotel. The "short" tower of the Atlantis Hotel Casino in Reno, NV was built as a Clarion Hotel. Before that the lodging was "out back" in motel style buildings and had Quality Inn branding. Over time as the property expanded, they did not continue branding with Choice.
Cool story.
purplenightskylovertv is offline  


Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.