[Excerpt] Building brand equity, or strong brands, is considered to be one of the key drivers of a business’s success. In this article we examine what constitutes brand equity in the hotel industry and demonstrate a method for how that brand equity can be measured. Our objective here is to offer a diagnostic and decision-making tool to CEOs and top managers of hotel companies that will help them maximize the value of their brands. Although a real-life example of brand-equity measurement was not available, we have developed a hypothetical but realistic demonstration of how our brand-equity index is developed and can be used to assess a brand’s strength over time and in relation to its competitive set.