Brand standards not only effect the guest experience, but they also effect the value placed on the hotel by hotel owners, lenders and investors. The juxtaposition between the desire of the brand to upgrade its brand standards and the desire of the hotel owner, lenders and investors to keep a tight grip on the bottom line can be complicated - and the brand standards are a critical component in the equation.

The pendulum appears to be swinging in the direction of greater influence being exerted by the easily recognized and well known branded hotels. The credit world finds comfort in a name on a hotel that has a solid history and reputation, and investors seem to be similarly eased by mobilizing capital resources into a branded hotel. But what is the brand standard in the area of hotel operations and management? Certainly we can find any number of hotel design and construction manuals. Every established brand can tell you the prototype number of keys, the minimum available floor area ratio for the lobby, the size of the bathroom, and the requisite number of bathroom fixtures and the other required guest amenities. These are the physical standards - the physical component of ...