Brand
·
2025
Pellmoor Hotels: signs worth following
A small group of four hotels got one brand that works on a key card, a corridor sign and a booking page, and new properties now open on it in days.
Client
Pellmoor Hotels
Year
2025
Services
Brand identity, Websites
Duration
18 weeks
Challenge
Pellmoor runs four independent hotels with four histories and, until recently, four sets of signs. Guests got lost on the way to breakfast, the front desk answered the same question about directions dozens of times a day, and every new property meant weeks of bespoke design. Online, the booking page looked nothing like the rooms. The group wanted its hotels to feel related without feeling like a chain: warm, a little formal and clearly looked after, from the first email to the last corridor.
Approach
We built the brand around the hardest-working object in a hotel, the key card. Oxblood and brass, a classical serif for room numbers and a single arch motif that changes shape from one property to the next. Wayfinding follows the same rules: large numerals, arrows that point where people actually walk, and a floor plan that can be read from the lift. Door hangers, breakfast cards and room plates share one template, so a manager can order a missing sign in a minute. The booking site was rebuilt on the same system, so a guest recognises the hotel before they arrive.
Outcome
The identity opened with the refurbished flagship and reached the other three hotels within a season. Guests now find the spa, the breakfast room and the fire exits without asking, and the booking page converts better with every room presented as a real place. A fifth property joined the group last winter and had signs, cards and a booking page in three days, using templates our team wrote for exactly that moment. Each hotel keeps its own character, and none is mistaken for another.
Results
+38%
Direct booking conversion
−31%
Wayfinding questions at the front desk
3 days
To brand a new property, down from 5 weeks
