Is Sandals squandering its brand by going budget?

Filed in archive Hotels on April 14, 2008

Sandals are re-branding two of their resorts, one in Antigua and the other in Jamaica as Grand Pineapple Resorts. The prices in these "Budget" resorts will be as much as 55% lower than the prices in their other resorts. The Grand Pineapple resorts will be marketed to families, couples and singles.


© Punch and Judy's Carribean Vacation_william

I'm not convinced that this a wise move. To me the Sandals brand is synonymous with luxury, exotic, romantic holiday for couples. It takes a long time to build up a well known and recognisable brand and to my mind Sandals is squandering it's brand by going down the budget route.

What do you think? Would you be put off paying high prices for a brand that's setting its sight on the budget end of the market? Or is it quite acceptable for one brand to have very different offerings for different market sectors and if the resorts under various sub brands are entirely separate, there will not be any perception of brand dilution by high end customers?