Regal's approval of corus at last

The long-delayed new name for Regal Hotels is to be Corus, the company announced last week.

The name will be phased in over three years as former Regal Hotels are brought up to the standards that Regal is aiming for with the new brand. For the time being the group will label itself Corus and Regal Hotels.

Managing director Nicholas Crawley said it had taken so long to come up with the Corus name because of extensive world-wide checking that the new name was not being used anywhere else, or did not mean something offensive in a foreign language.

"It was an enormous process and took longer than we expected," he admitted.

Regal wanted to rebrand to avoid confusion with the international group of the same name and to develop a chain with consistent standards.

Crawley said: "We have some very good hotels within the group, with great individuality, but we have been aware that there is some inconsistency in standards.

"People like the fact that our hotels are friendly and have more character, but obviously they dislike it if they are shabby. We now want to build on the character while raising the standards."