Dec. 6—BEMIDJI — There's a new sign outside Bemidji's Hampton Inn and Suites, 20 years after the hotel opened on the south end of Lake Bemidji.
Its new name is the SouthShore Hotel on Lake Bemidji, Trademark Collection by Wyndham.
The change was necessitated by a new franchise agreement, said owner Rich Siegert. The 20-year contract with Hilton Worldwide, the parent company of Hampton, expired this year. After looking at other options, Siegert's team decided to sign on with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.
"We thought about a lot of different names," Siegert said. "We wanted something that related to the lake and the location. After about 3-4 weeks of researching, we looked at it and said, 'Let's just go with the SouthShore Hotel on Lake Bemidji.'"
Siegert said the business had three options as the Hilton franchise agreement was ending: Renew with Hilton, go with a different brand or become independent.
"There are a lot of changes that are happening in the lodging industry," Siegert said. "When we started out with Hilton, there were five brand names in the Hilton portfolio, and now there are like 23 brands. A lot of you probably haven't even heard of, like Spark and Tru and Tempo. There's so many of these names out there that people don't know."
He said Hilton has rebranded its Hampton Inn portfolio, and that new brand did not match up with his Bemidji hotel.
"We're sitting there looking at our facility and we've got a convention center and a conference center, which most Hamptons don't," he said. "We've got the beach area. We're on the lake, which most Hamptons don't even come close to. Our rooms are anywhere from 50 to 90 square feet larger than the typical Hampton room prototype."
Siegert said one of the incentives to go with Wyndham was its honor points system. According to Wyndham's website, the Trademark Collection "is a collection of independently minded upper-midscale and above properties. Just as no two travelers are alike — every Trademark Hotel is distinctive, taking on the character of the place in which they're built."
"Wyndham's got some of the best points systems in the lodging business," Siegert said. "We still have the same product, but we will promote a little bit differently and will be doing more of our own advertising."