The Commercial Hotel is a three-storey Edwardian Commercial style building located in Nanaimo's downtown coreDoes Holiday Inn Express have a sure-fire brand message? Yes. Does Holiday Inn
Express convey and execute this message properly? According to our brand model
at Stealing Share, it comes up a short. In fact, if you read how the “Stay Smart”
campaign began, the brand is more superficial than it even appears.

The Commercial Hotel is a tangible reminder of the social and economic importance of hotels in Nanaimo history. Like most mining communities, early Nanaimo had a large population of single, often transient, men. As affordable housing alternatives, hotels functioned as living quarters and, in the saloons and restaurants typically located on the ground floor, as social centres.