Value Place Hires New Branding Expert

WICHITA, KS—Value Place, the extended-stay hotel brand, has had a busy year. It announced a major expansion of its franchise efforts, brought in a new team of top officials and just reported that its system-wide revenue increased 10.6% over the same period last year to $55 million. And now it will attempt to further strengthen its brand name by naming Mike Varner as its senior vice president of brand strategy and marketing.

Varner joins Value Place from Choice Hotels International, where he was most recently responsible for brand strategy and management for the Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites brands. It’s not the first time that Value Place has tapped someone from CHI, one of the world’s largest lodging companies. Bruce Haase, for example, who recently took the helm as chief executive officer at Value Place, had just finished a 12-year tenure at CHI. Varner has also held leadership positions in brand management and innovation at Campbell Soup and 3M.