Naming & Branding Expert
Table of Contents
The Ultimate 8-Step Guide To Naming Hotel \ Motel
One of the most important steps in starting a hotel business is the naming. To come up with fancy hotel names, make use of our free resort name generator. It is totally free and unique to your brand.
For better understanding of the naming process, I have created a list of possible hotel names. These name ideas will guide you in your brainstorming process.
- The Warm Inn
- East Side Hotel
- Primeview Hotel
- Pilgrims’ Rest
- Bosco’s B&B
- The Grand Hotel
- Hotel de la Paix
- Seaside Resort
- La Tropicana
- The Honeymooners
- Presidential Suites
- Hotel Gazette
- Southside Hotel
- Almost Home
- The Villa
- Cosmopolitan Hotel
- Hotel L’amour
- The Grand Stone Resort
- Atlantic Hotel
- The Exclusive
Step 1: Outline What the Name Should Represent
When trying to come up with good hotel names, it’s important that you first think of them in relation to your brand.
What is in a hotel names? A lot is in a name, but what really stands out in any name is what it represents. It is what your hotel name ultimately stands for. You want the name to explain to the target audience who you are and how your services can be of use. That will make the business easier to find and more appealing to potential users.
Once you have created a list of your fancy hotel names, the next step is to identify the best names from the lot. Before the selection, there are a handful of questions you should ask yourself in order to single out the best names for your hotel.
- Is your chosen hotel name relevant to your audience?
- What does the name mean?
- Is it catchy and easy to remember?
- What demographic does your hotel business target?
- Does the hotel location have any unique attractions?
Bottom line: There is no magic formula for explaining what your resort name represents. What’s important is to identify your target market and then focus on making positive and meaningful emotional connections with them. Find names that cannot in any way jeopardize that objective.
Step 2: Competitive Analysis
Your task in this step is to analyze local or international companies from same field and figure out what inspired their name. Then you can come up with strategies to do it better.
The big question is, “how exactly did they get their naming on point?”
An easy way to do this is to find a number of fancy hotel names on the internet, evaluate their logo and positioning. This will tell you a lot about how each one derived its name and established a brand.
An exhaustive competitive analysis will give you an objective understanding of the competition’s strengths and weaknesses. That information will help you position your hotel in a unique way that outshines the competition.
How to Do a Competitive Name Analysis
How do you analyze competitors’ hotel names and logo designs? Follow our simple template:
- Pick a few competitors (preferably industry leaders).
- Check out their name. What does the name say, and how does it relate to what they do?
- Analyze the logo. What does it represent?
- How do their name and logo contribute to their success?
To give you an idea of what we mean, please check out our analysis of these three leading businesses:
The Fortress Resort and Spa: the owners of this resort named it so because of the architectural design- imposing walls and high towers. The name ‘fortress’ gives the visitor a feeling of safety and privacy.
The Upper House: this Hong Kong located hotel derived its name from a marketing strategy. It offers visitors an upward journey from the hustle and bustle of the city, to a serene environment above ground level.
Marina Bay Sands: the prime location of this hotel inspired its name. The hotel’s three buildings are connected by a rooftop pool which overlooks the Marina Bay, hence the name.
Four Seasons Hotel: this hotel derived its name from the four seasons of the year. The name suggests that they are willing to accommodate a visitor despite the season.
Bottom line: You can tell from the three examples that it’s by no coincidence that some resort names become so relatable and memorable. The feel in the logo and the messaging in the name help the business stand out from the crowd.
Step 3: Gather a List of Your Name Ideas (Brainstorm)
The next step for you is to brainstorm possible hotel name ideas. Write them down as they come; do the weeding later.
When you have 20-40 names that fit your niche and vision, and that can compete successfully with existing competitors.
Next, split your list of names into the 4 categories listed below. Let’s see a quick demonstration assuming you’re trying to come up with cool motel names centered on business.
- Descriptive names: In this approach, the name should describe the service or product of your business at first glance.
Here are 5 descriptive names we brainstormed for the purpose of this article:- Seaside Resort
- Primeview Hotel
- Presidential Suites
- East Side Hotel
- Hotel de la Paix
- Suggestive names: Suggestive names create a vivid image that resonates with the prospective user. Suggestive hotel names hint at an underlying meaning to the name, instead of just putting it out there. You can go with this category if you’re trying to get creative.
Good examples for suggestive names are:- Pilgrim’s Rest
- The Warm Inn
- The Honeymooners
- Almost Home
- The Exclusive
- Abstract names: Abstract names are memorable and catchy, but they don’t have any apparent connection with their services or products. The names are purely made up, so they easily establish dominance in the market. Google, Yahoo, Nike, and Skype are examples of abstract names.
Some abstract name ideas for hotels business are;- The Upper House
- The Fortress
- Grand Stone
- La Tropicana
- Oakwood
- Legacy names: naming your resort with legacy in mind means that you want it to outlive you. If this is what you prefer, you can just name it after yourself or an organization you founded. The luxury sports car Ferrari, for example, is named after its founder, Enzo Ferrari.
We brainstormed these examples:- Hilton Hotels
- Bosco’s B&B
- J&J Suites
- Nobu Hotel
- Bulgari Milano
Step 4: Generating Names
Are you still stuck on a names of hotels to go with? Try our hotel name generator.
This hotel name generator will get you name ideas using AI algorithm match. It’s unique, it’s fresh and it was made for you.
All you have to do is type your word you want to include in the name in the search bar. In a matter of seconds, you will get fancy hotel names ideas.
Our algorithm is designed to learn your preferred keywords over time and consequently recommend the most suitable options for you. Learn more how does it work, by clicking here.
Once you find the names you like, instant domain zone availability checker will show you what zones are available for registration. This AI based resort name generator will also get you some logo recommendations based on the name of your motel. This tool saves you a lot of time and the best part? It is totally free!
Ready to find your business name?
Step 5: Shortlisting your name ideas
It’s weeding time! This is where you prune and pick only the best names for your hotel. Your shortlist should have about 3-5 names off your initial list.
Picking your favorite resort name may be tough, especially if you used our hotel name generator. There are a few things you need to consider when creating a shortlist.
- Keep it simple. Good hotel names should be unique, but mostly simple. Simple names are easily remembered.
- Check for linguistics and context. Do a quick google search of your names to find out what they mean in other languages- especially your target countries. If any of them has an offensive meaning in another language, it’s best to go with a different name.
- Sometimes owners choose names that later become controversial especially in overseas markets. Don’t make that mistake. Eliminate any chances of the name being misinterpreted as sexist, homophobic, racist, or offensive in any way to any community.
- Tagline check. If you haven’t come up with a tagline at this point, take a pause and do that. It’s important that your chosen hotel name aligns with your tagline, which is also your slogan.
It is your prerogative to decide the elimination criteria, but this checklist should help you shorten your list:
- Is the name culturally sensitive?
- Does the name capture the values and vision of your brand?
- Does the name align with your tagline? If you don’t have a tagline ready, you need to create it at this point and align it with your preferred app name.
- How relatable is the name to the target audience?
- Of the most relatable names, which ones are the easiest to remember?
- Can your target audience pronounce the name easily and accurately?
- How original does the name sound? You don’t want clichés and plagiarized names.
Now before you Reduce your list from the 20-40 names to about 3-5 names, take a look at my shortlist that I created, here are 5 chosen names- and the reasons they fit the bill for a standard hotel.
- The Warm Inn: this hotel name conveys a sense of warmth and comfort after a tiring day.
- Primeview Hotel: this name describes the location of the hotel, indicating that it is situated in a place with a wonderful view.
- Seaside Resort: this hotel name has “seaside” as the major attraction. At a first glance, it paints an image of the calm seaside in one’s mind.
- The Honeymooners: the target demographic of this hotel is young couples. It describes a place where people can enjoy privacy, while having fun.
- Bosco’s B&B: this name suggests a small town accommodation that offers beds and breakfast to travelers for a specific duration.
Step 6: Background Check
Once you have shortlisted the best hotel names, background checks are necessary. A background check might just save you from future legal battles and cases of misinterpretation. Here are a few things to do in a background check.
- Research Legality: You do not want to get in trouble with the law because you’re starting a hotel business. So, find out if your intended motel names and taglines are in accordance with the law of your home country. Do this for each name on the shortlist. If any of them does not pass the test, drop that name and move on with the others.
- Trademark Check: to avoid cases of trademark infringement down the line, find out if your motel name or logo is already trademarked by another organization. If it’s not, you have the go-ahead to register it as your own trademark.
- Readability: is your resort name easy to read and understand? You can get an external opinion on the readability of your hotel name and tagline. If it’s not, you have the opportunity to fix that because you’re not creating it for yourself alone.
Step 7: Get some Feedback
You have narrowed down your 20-40 name list to 2-3 names at this point.
Simple step: It’s great to have the opinion of a third-party when you’re done with the primary checks. Their opinion may differ from yours, but it’s mostly objective criticism so that’s okay. You can show a list of your final 2 club names to;
- People who run hotel or own one.
- Your target audience.
If you’re asking your ideal audience, ask the first thing they thought of on hearing that name. Ask a hotel owner how they think an audience would interpret your resort name.
Once you get feedback, go back and figure out if their response was in favor of your name or not. Ask yourself if the name evoked the thoughts, you had imagined it would.
Pro Step: If you want to go deeper with the feedback step you can reach out to opinion shapers, industry leaders, your ideal customers, linguists, and tech futurists for their opinions.
- Tech futurists will help you predict and reshape the future prospects of your new hotel name within the global tech space.
- Linguists will advise on the name’s readability and lingual appropriateness.
- Opinion shapers and industry leaders will help you predict the resort’s probable reception in the real world.
- Ideal customers will tell you whether the business name represents a need they would purchase.
Pro tip: Don’t rely too much on feedback from biased people, especially fans, friends, family members, and colleagues. Seek the opinion of brutally honest critics.
Step 8: Check if the name is available
You have come a long way in trying to name your resort. Now, the final step is to check if your resort name and extension of choice are available for domain registration. You can use our name availability checker to run a quick check after you have generated name ideas for your hotel. Our free tool shows you which domain extensions are available, and will recommend logo ideas that correspond with your business name. Or you can Google the shortlisted names to ensure that they aren’t plagiarized. Looking up the names will also give you an idea of what each name might mean to different internet users.
The hotel name generator and availability checker are highly recommended, to make your resort stand out from the rest.
Ready to find your business name?
7 Things to Avoid While Naming Motel
- Complex Names. In a bid to come off as creative or different, a lot of people come up with names they shouldn’t be using for a motel or any establishment at all. You can get creative, but don’t complicate things for yourself and your audience by using names that are difficult to read and spell.
- Copying a Competitor’s Style. The competitive analysis is for you to study the marketplace, and get inspired with ideas that are original to your brand. Copying the style, name or logo of another motel takes away the originality from your project.
- Skipping Background Checks. Do not for any reason, skip the background checks detailed in Step 6. That is, if you hate the discomfort of legal battles and run-ins with the law enforcement.
- Shortcuts. There are no shortcuts to success. Even when naming your resort, you have to follow through with the recommended steps. Cutting corners may cost you more in the long run.
- Don’t limit the name to a specific language or geographical location. That will in most cases minimize the future growth prospects.
- Don’t use words that are too plain or cliché to outstand from a crowd. In the same breath, don’t choose names that too obscure, technical, or difficult.
- Don’t be too stubborn or biased that you cannot accept negative feedback for the names you like.
To save time, you can use our hotel name generator to quickly find good club names. Name ideas from the name generator are catchy, simple and unique to you.