Branded Customer Experience

Brand
The super 8 brand stands for freedom and the open road. They started out looking for destinations to make them ‘super’. Super 8 is a two star, middle class motel, situated at “convenient locations, with clean rooms, and friendly service at a reasonable price”.

According to Vikas Patel, manager of the super 8 motel in Tempe, the advantages for a motel to become part of the super 8 franchise, outweigh the disadvantages. The downsides can be the additional costs, such as: royalty fees, advertising fees, fees to the loyalty program, etc. The upsides of being part of a brand like super 8 are: a central reservation system, supporting services (for example: guidance when needed), powerful marketing/ advertising campaigns, etc.

Consumer – experience
As a result of poor advertising from Wyndham, consumers compare super 8 motels to super 6 motels, while the standards are up to Best Western level, according to super 8 manager Jeff Burge. For foreigners, who are not familiar with super 8 motels, motels have an incorrect reputation, due to films and media, in which motels are pictured to be principally subject to one night stands. This is one of the motives why super 8 decided to change the logo and take out the word ‘motel’ (read: Concept).

As for our own experiences; super 8 stands for satisfactory customer service, well equipped rooms (facilitated with air-conditioning, a refrigerator, a microwave, queensize beds) at clearly directed and accessible locations (near main roads and public transportation).