Branding in tourism is a process that differentiates us and helps us built an identity. A brand has to awaken emotions, communicate a message, and stimulate loyalty and motivation. The power of a brand means its strength, promise and reputation, and it’s reflected through differentiation, relevance and respect. At the moment, hotel brands are becoming strategic tools for better positioning and competitiveness in the marketplace. In the global tourist marketplace, where competition is relentless and tourists’ demands are becoming more complex year after year, the role of a brand becomes crucial when choosing a destination and a hotel, while on the other hand, branded hotels achieve better business results in the tourist marketplace. One of the ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition is through quality. Quality management, as well as quality and processes audits, has become an imperative when it comes to high-end hotels. Applying the total quality management concept (TQM) offers a possibility to improve the quality according to the guests’ requirements and expectations, and it’s the key factor for business success, on which you can build competitive advantage in the marketplace. Guests’ demands are becoming more complex, so the quality has to be constantly controlled and adjusted. Overcoming the gap between the strategy oriented towards low costs versus the strategy of high value-quality is a problem which Croatian hospitality is still struggling with.