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IHG launches (another) new hotel brand – Garner

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There is, almost literally, no end to the number of hotels brands which the major global hotel groups think can be sustained.

Marriott Bonvoy is now at 31 following the acquisition of City Express, whilst Accor is over 40 – with more if you include all of the Ennismore ones.

It’s always fun to watch companies justify the ‘gap in the market’ they want to fill when they already have 30-40 brands. In truth, it is often about geographical rights – if you gave exclusivity to someone who opened a Marriott in a certain city, you’ve always got Delta, or Renaissance, or Courtyard or …..

IHG launches Garner hotel brand

Today’s new brand is from IHG and is called Garner. It will be the 19th brand in the IHG One Rewards stable.

What is IHG’s new ‘Garner’ brand all about?

Garner is a ‘conversion brand’.

Most hotel brands come with a very fat manual of brand standards. After all, the whole point of a brand is that you know what to expect when you arrive. I remember having a tour of Kimpton Fitzroy in London and having the water fridge in the gym pointed out to me – Kimpton insists not only that its gyms have fridges, but that they include flavoured as well as regular water. Multiply this by 500 and you have your typical ‘brand standards’ list.

IHG launches Garner hotels

A ‘conversion brand’ is different. It is aimed at owners of existing hotels who want to join a ‘system’, in this case IHG One Rewards, but don’t want to spend the money required to adjust the property to ‘brand standard’ levels.

The best known conversion brand is probably Hilton’s DoubleTree. It’s famous for giving you a chocolate chip cookie when you check in, but apart from that there is nothing else which you can be certain of getting.

As we covered in another article today, Marriott has Delta. Originally a Canadian four star chain, Marriott bought it and decided to use the brand for conversions.

IHG already has ‘voco’ which is a 4-star conversion brand. The hotels have little in common except a requirement to have a few splashes of yellow around the place.

As well as ‘conversion’ brands, you also have ‘soft’ brands such as Marriott’s Autograph Collection, IHG’s Vignette and Hilton’s Curio Collection. Aimed at the luxury market, ‘soft’ brands allow hotels to trade under their historic names whilst also having a similar lax approach to brand standards as you would find with a conversion brand.

IHG launches Garner hotel brand

‘Garner’ is aimed at midscale conversions, so the 3-star to lower 4-star range. To put this in context, Holday Inn Express is seen as ‘upper midscale’, so the hotels will be downmarket from that.

Amusingly the PR release says:

The brand will be the leading choice for guests wanting great value stays at high-quality properties, and for owners seeking higher returns in the midscale segment.

So it’s for guests who think they are booking a “high quality” hotel but in fact they are booking a “midscale” hotel which happens to look smart and so commands higher rates ….

The hotels will offer free hot breakfast and be focussed on value for money. Hotels will include a Garner Shop mini-market and be obliged to offer a free glass of flavoured water when checking in, which is the equivalent of the DoubleTree cookie.

We are told that “owners will value the brand’s flexible approach to conversions”, which seems to be a polite way of saying that IHG isn’t setting the bar very high when it comes to what it will require.

To put in context how quickly hotels can be turned around, IHG isn’t accepting applications from hotels until September 2023, but still intends to have the first US properties open by Christmas. The goal for the US alone is to have 500 Garner hotels within a decade. There is no date yet for the international launch.


IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – November 2024:

Get bonus points:

Nights to do not need to be consecutive. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

IHG is running a second promotion for stays at five of its smaller brands. You will receive triple base points between 1st October and 31st December 2024 on stays at voco, avid hotels, EVEN Hotels, Atwell Suites and Garner Hotels. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Comments (35)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Chris says:

    A glass of flavoured water might well be the least appealing hotel benefit in the market right now. Someone needs fired over that

  • acewoking says:

    So a large glass Kilner-style water dispenser at reception with 2 sprigs of mint and a lemon in it then?

  • Lady London says:

    Never got a cookie at Doubletree SJC. Checkin staff seemed to be saying come back later we’ve run out. I did see crumbs around the desks behind Reception though 🙁

    A very old hotel, felt like 1950’s, I suppose getting into a marketing network via a conversion brand is a good thing for this type of hotel.

  • SammyJ says:

    I’d class HIExpress as ‘Upper Budget’ rather than any kind of midscale. I’d be very interested to see how they classify the whole list!

  • AJA says:

    Who come up with these names? I suppose it’s fitting that they chose garner which means to collect or gather. I suppose you could say they’re garnering hotels.

    I’m with others as for HIX being upper midscale – no it’s not.

  • G says:

    I assume anything directed towards the US domestic market is a non-starter. The US is dreadfully expensive, with disgusting ultra processed food, loud people and poor customer service.

  • Nick says:

    This article has just made me realise that we weren’t offered a DoubleTree cookie upon checking in to be Dartford Bridge property last week.

  • cap says:

    IHG needs to up their game in UK. Holiday Inn is really not a terrific experience, and there is nothing else than a terribly expensive Intercontinental. Same for Canary Islands in Spain, there is actually no IHG hotel in there to book. Same for Latin America, where you can only find Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza and a few Intercontinental. It is depressing, now even more considering there is no Mr & Mrs Smith. To top it all up, if you are Diamond Ambassador, you don’t get more value/perks than the lower tier Platinum Elite regardless of the fact that it takes the double nights or points to reach that category, because the Hertz benefit never really worked when I tried to book cars, and the “dedicated” customer line is more than often answered by any team member who invariably insists in trying to assist me, and when I ask to be put through a Diamond ambassador representative I get transfer to yet another team member who is not a dedicated Diamond ambassador representative. IHG should offer real value perks to their Diamond members, such as a status match with an airline, like Accord has with Qatar, free parking included, guaranteed room upgrade to the best room in the hotel regardless of which room one booked, and status match for your wife, husband or partner. At the moment it is all smoke and mirrors.

    • jannis says:

      you can now book with Iberostar in Spain

    • Rob says:

      Network gaps are huge. My wife needs a cheap Marriott cash night (mattress run!) by 31st to trigger her 35k free night. No sign of one anywhere we are trotting around Italy and Slovenia at the moment.

      • Pangolin says:

        Moxy Milan (MXP) tends to be fairly cheap.. at least by Marriott/Italy standards.

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