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 companies, to be known as “BENCHMARK,” a global hospitality company, will include over 70 unique and distinctive hotels, resorts and conference centers, 8,000 guest rooms, 10,000 employees and a combined management team from both companies.
Benchmark will include several new and recognized hospitality brands, including:
- Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, the company's existing signature portfolio of distinctive and upscale hotels and resorts in the US and the Caribbean.
- The new Gemstone Collection, which will encompass both the properties of Benchmark's "Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels" and Gemstone's "Gemstone Hotels & Resorts.”
- 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 exceptional meeting venues offering the most productive and innovative meeting spaces, personally-tailored service, and locally sourced, customized cuisine. Each Benchmark Conference Center meets a rigorous set of criteria and conforms to the requirements of IACC, the association that represents the finest meeting venues and service globally.
- OAG - Owner Advisory Group. Benchmark's OAG platform offers owners asset management expertise in maximizing an asset's value for optimized profitability and valuation.
The Benchmark and Gemstone teams worked with a hospitality market research and branding firm to create an identity program with new logos to distinguish the new company and the four brands.
Benchmark CEO Alex Cabañas noted that market research clearly showed that the Benchmark identity should be retained as the parent company name. The brand’s strength lies in its focus on independent and soft brands and experience-driven destination travel, which are increasingly driving the market.
"Benchmark means the standard by which all others are measured,” Cabañas said. “Both companies, Benchmark and Gemstone, throughout our histories have desired to be the best in what we do, never settling for just good enough and always learning from today and crafting our tomorrow.
“Those of us most familiar with the word Benchmark rekindled our passion for the true meaning of the word. While the word is the same, how we use it in our branding and culture will be different.”
Benchmark’s new logo consists of a triangle and globe, symbolic of Benchmark’s “triangle” concept of balancing Living, Learning and Leisure in both design and operations, originally created by Burt Cabañas at the company’s founding in 1980. The globe represents the company’s expanding global presence.
