April 23rd, 2015 – Wichita, KS – Value Place, the nation’s fastest growing value extended stay hotel brand, announced today that it changed its name to WoodSpring Suites, effective immediately. As well, it is developing a brand extension with a more enhanced offering, WoodSpring Suites Signature, designed to appeal to less price sensitive guests.
“Our new brand strategy will foster our ability to further expand our network, gain access to new markets and customer segments, and further drive RevPAR growth for our company owned hotels and development partners,” said Bruce Haase, CEO of the brand. “Leveraging our highly profitable operating model and history of product innovation, we believe that our rebranding strategy will be the catalyst to take the company to the next level of growth and profitability. We are building from a strong foundation,” said Haase. “Although the Company achieved record financial performance in 2014 and saw unprecedented demand from both consumers and developers for our product, we see clear opportunities to do even better and build a long term growth platform.”
“We conducted an enormous amount of consumer research,” said Kyle Rogg, President and Chief Operating Officer. “We found that although consumers and developers actually love the Value Place product offering, there is a disconnect between perceptions of who we are and the reality of our product and experience based upon our current branding. The WoodSpring Suites brand will better align with our position as the leading value extended stay hotel company, better communicate the quality of our product, and allow us to expand our reach to new customer segments. We are also excited to launch WoodSpring Suites Signature later this year – a completely unique product offering in the extended stay hotel market.
The company’s franchise partners enthusiastically endorse these changes. “The development community is fully on board and ready to run quickly to capitalize on this opportunity,” said Ian McClure, chairman of the company’s franchise advisory board.
Value Place has garnered national recognition for the success of its franchise operations. The company was named by Forbes magazine as the top hotel franchise in the US, recognized as one of 2014’s Top 500 Franchises by Entrepreneur magazine, and one of Franchise Business Review’s Top 50 Franchises for four consecutive years along with being named the hotel category winner in 2015.
“Once again we are forging a new path that will serve our partners – and our guests – well,” said Ron Burgett, EVP of Franchise Development. “The new brand will provide an opportunity for our developers to be an integral part of a concept that is unique to the industry. There is nothing else like WoodSpring Suites in the market today, and WoodSpring Suites Signature will provide further opportunities for our development partners to gain access to new high value markets.”
“The WoodSpring Suites brand provides us with the right platform to build a widely distributed national brand, better serve our guests, and provide growth opportunities for our associates,” said Haase. “We have an incredible opportunity in front of us and we could not be more excited about our future.”
