For decades, creating a hotel brand has been an exhausting process: years of strategy, millions in agency fees, endless rounds of revisions. By the time the concept launches, guest expectations have shifted and competitors have already moved on.
Enter BrandClave Hotels, a new platform that is the hospitality industry’s first brand lab—think of it like a digital cofounder that delivers an entire brand identity in seven days. From there, all a hotelier needs is the building and capital to make it happen.
“For every corner of hospitality, there’s a BrandClave brand waiting to go viral,” said Sarah Jarnicki, the company’s founder.“This is not about selling just my own brands. With BrandClave, I hope to transform how the hospitality industry creates them, creating one custom for any hotelier’s needs.”
Unlike the traditional branding process, BrandClave blends hotel trends, customer desires, brand strategy, design intelligence and proprietary technology into one seamless process.
“Think of us as the vault where tomorrow’s most talked about hotel brands are born—that’s the meaning behind BrandClave, a vault,” Jarnicki explained. “For years I kept these brands locked away in my personal vault, my mind. I am now ready to share them to enhance the hospitality experience.”
Her system creates an entire brand ecosystem, starting with name research, story, visual identity, guest experiences, launch plan and marketing assets, to name a few services. BrandClave is like having a cofounder who has already built a dozen hotel brands and knows exactly how to perfect the brand-making process. With all ideas created by Jarnicki, technology enabling speed and industry professionals to consult with, BrandClave isn’t a company that can be replicated.
In addition to being the first brand lab of its kind, Jarnicki also believes BrandClave is the first AI-driven dataset platform solely focused on hospitality brand creation. Within the technology, there is a feature called “What’s Hot in Hospitality” that she is training to serve as an R&D lab for global hotel pipelines.
Jarnicki began creating hotel concepts in her 11th-grade marketing class, DECA. This program allowed her to leave school early, where she went to work as a guest service agent at a Marriott, solidifying her love for hospitality. In 2007, working at the front desk of a Westin hotel during her freshman year of college, she started submitting her ideas to enhance the guest experience to management. She realized if she wanted to make these ideas a reality, she needed to build some capital, leading her to be an international commodities trader for most of her career. A year ago, she began discussing potential partnerships with various hoteliers for her concepts. However, it was just a few months ago that she realized she had an opportunity to innovate the brand creation process.
Currently with 12 brands ready to sell, and a system to customize any hotelier’s vision, here is how BrandClave’s seven-day system works:
- Vision intake: capturing essence, target market and positioning
- Brand alchemy, not automation: deep market analysis, archetyping and sensory mapping—and visualization
- Brand ecosystem creation: three brand concepts to choose from, including brand profile, colors, fonts, textures, logo creation, moodboard and naming
- Launch-ready delivery: a complete brand universe, ready to present, fund and activate. BrandClave gives the option to buy digital rights for brands just exploring an idea, exclusive rights to launch a physical property or to partner with BrandClave in developing the property together.
The result is what Jarnicki calls “the feels” effect, brands that take you to a place you’ve never been before. “I learned from my first guest experience at Ian Schrager’s PUBLIC that the feels is the most important part of the brand-making process,” she said. “He perfected that. The guest has to feel the brand. I enjoy creating that effect for any type of hotel clientele.”
She wants to translate that emotional connection to all types of properties. BrandClave appeals to both independents and major hotel groups.
“For independents, it’s about access and direction,” she said. “They dream of launching a memorable brand but may not know where to start or have millions of dollars to give the desired guest experience. With BrandClave, they can have a polished brand in a week, at a fraction of the cost.”
For large hotel groups, she said, it’s about speed and experimentation, adding, “They can test multiple concepts quickly, respond to changing guest demands and create niche sub-brands without tying up years of internal resources.
“I believe the most powerful aspect of BrandClave is that it will increase their brand loyalty with customers, not just returning for points, but because they recognize that this corporation gets them, their personal brand. That’s where customers want to stay,” she said.
She pointed out that of the 12 brands available at launch, “most are a natural fit for chains, mirroring mass-market desires while adding tangible soul that speaks to the customer.”
She concluded, “Everywhere we look, society is already living in the future—Waymo cars on our streets, AI content dominating feeds, robots delivering food, futuristic stages at music festivals. Society is living in the future/ BrandClave is here to usher in the hotels of the future—the brands guests truly crave.”
Great article! Very impressive!