Hotels Are Finding "Resort" Is Not a Relaxing Name

Posted by Paul Christ January 26, 2010

Labels: Customer Behavior, External Forces, Product Management

Don't Use the R-Word: Hotels Find Trick to Business Bookings (Wall Street Journal)

For several years KnowThis.com's Stories section has included many stories from The Wall Street Journal, which we view as one of the best business resources on the planet! But the mangers of The WSJ have chosen to move more and more of their content away from being free and as a result we are featuring fewer stories. But on occasion The WSJ does offer a free full-length marketing story, and this is a good one.

Several hotels have decided that having the word “resort” in their name is not good for business. Apparently the perception of the word “resort” is driving customers away because of its association with big spenders such as companies caught up in the U.S. financial crisis. This is a nice example of how an uncontrollable external factor can impact a marketer. In this case, the meaning of a word in a product's name has been affected by news headlines.

Hoteliers call the resulting fallout the AIG effect. Politicians railed against companies—especially those that got federal aid—meeting at resorts in live-it-up locales like Las Vegas. In turn, companies and government agencies revised travel policies to discourage, if not prohibit, resort stays.

What will it take for these hotels to reinstate the word “resort”?

Image by Lisa Andres