City Inn refreshed by Mint rebrand
City Inn, an upmarket hotel chain founded in 1995, is to rebrand as Mint Hotel as the firm seeks to grow its international aspirations.
The chain is seeking development sites in Paris and Rome as part of a global expansion drive but there were fears that this could be undermined by poor brand perception.
David Orr, chief executive of City Inn, said that the decision to rebrand had been taken because the existing name did not create an appropriate “impression” of “an upscale design hotel” to guests.
These fears arose from a survey conducted by BDRC which indicated that though guests rated the hotel highly they regarded City Inn as a mid-market or budget brand.
Orr came up with the idea of Mint himself whilst brainstorming with his father Sandy, the group’s executive chairman and has appointed Diamond Advertising to develop an accompanying campaign.
Speaking to The Times Orr said: “We tried to think of negatives but couldn’t come up with any. You won’t forget it, that’s for sure. We wanted to have something with a sense freshness, something modern, punchy and memorable that would have some of the attributes of simple brand names like Apple and Orange.”