Following the merger of Benchmark Hospitality International and Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, the collective company has launched an expanded organization and portfolio, new corporate identity, and four distinct brands.
The launch of the combined, iconic companies, to be known as “Benchmark,” a global hospitality company, will include over 70 hotels, resorts and conference centers, 8,000 guestrooms, 10,000 employees and a combined management team from both companies.
The new brands
Benchmark will include new and recognized hospitality brands spanning hotels, resorts, and conference centers. They include:
1. Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, the company’s existing signature portfolio of distinctive and upscale hotels and resorts in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
2. The new Gemstone Collection, which will encompass both the properties of Benchmark’s “Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels” and Gemstone’s “Gemstone Hotels & Resorts.” The Gemstone Collection name was chosen as it speaks to something valued and uniquely individual.
3. Benchmark Conference Centers, formally introduced to the meetings market in 2014, but a part of Benchmark since inception, designates properties that are purpose-built conference centers and meeting venues. Each Benchmark Conference Center meets a rigorous set of criteria and conforms to the requirements of IACC, the association that represents meeting venues and service globally.
4. OAG – Owner Advisory Group. Benchmark’s OAG platform offers owners asset management expertise leveraging resources through Benchmark’s operating and real estate platforms.
The process
The Benchmark and Gemstone teams worked with a hospitality market research and branding firm to determine the most strategic way to create an identity program with new logos to distinguish the new company and the four brands.
“Our goal was to create an identity that reflects the global leadership, exceptional properties, and dynamic synergies and opportunities the merged company now brings to its owners, guests and employees,” said Benchmark CEO Alex Cabañas.
Cabañas also noted that intensive market research clearly showed that the Benchmark identity should be retained as the parent company name. “To benchmark against something is a common practice and suggests a reference to the best – the high water mark in time. All roads in life lead you to aspire to achieve the benchmark – the best. Therefore, the expanded company will be known simply as Benchmark.”