Midscale Hotel Brands Are Getting Smarter About Not Being Boring

If you're a major hotel company, chances are you're planning to launch — or have just launched — a new midscale brand. The most recent case in point: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which just announced its 13th brand Wednesday, but doesn't yet have a name for it. During the annual NYU Hospitality Industry Investment Conference earlier this month, other hotel companies also announced their plans to launch (or in some cases, relaunch) midscale brands. They included Trump Hotels' new American Idea, Red Lion Hotel Corporation (RLHC)'s reinvention of the Signature Inn brand, and Hard Rock Hotels' Reverb brand, which has a name, but not much else beyond this brand video. What Makes a Hotel "Midscale" The definition of a "midscale" hotel brand used to evoke, like most hotels in years past, images of conformity. This used to be a hotel category concerned solely with the basics, and more often than not, hotels in this segment were standard in every way (translation: boring).