The Renaissance Goa, has been rebranded the Ramada Caravela Beach Resort with effect from the first week of June.

Explaining the reasons behind the change, Poonam Bijlani, director sales and marketing, Ramada Caravela Beach Resort said, “Advani Hotels Resorts (India) Ltd found the need to rebrand the Goa property because the Renaissance brand is mainly associated with business properties. The Ramada brand of hotels suited us better as they have a number of resort properties, thus making it an easier positioning exercise. It was a conscious decision to stay with the Marriott family as we wanted to continue as their franchisee.”

According to the sources, the understanding with Renaissance was discontinued as the brand managers were getting too stringent with their norms and because the Renaissance requires part ownership, which did not go well with the owners who wanted to keep the management inhouse. The Ramada was chosen because it is a more flexible brand and more importantly because it is open to a pure franchise agreement.

Says Bijlani, “The resort’s new name is expected to capitalise on its beach front location. Besides, the Ramada brand is more known in the UK (60 properties) and Germany (50 hotels), the two countries from which Goa has received the maximum number of tourists.”

She adds that the change will not affect pricing. “The hotel is doing extremely well. This could be attributed to the total revenue’s in May 2003 which was 60 per cent higher than the previous year.”