Brand management in the hotel industry: from company to network brand. Opportunities and limits of networking for small-sized hotels

in the worldwide competition for attracting tourism flows, a strong brand can increase the capability of a hotel to be recognized, appreciated and visited. Thus a brand can represent an important key success. However, like any other corporation hotels should manage their brand efficiency and effectively. Hotel brand should be coherent with the network or franchising chain the hotel belongs to and with the place brand of the territory where it is located. Attention to brand architecture help hotels leverage and reinforce the positive image and value proposition of the specific place. Since SMEs represent the main actor in hotel industry , this paper aims to explore small hotel owners' awareness on the importance of branding and understand which brand management activities they perform alone and within the network. Empirical analysis is performed with reference to the Province of Rimini in Italy