[OSM-talk] Tag name vs operator

[Lester Caine]

John Smith wrote:
> On 13 July 2010 06:59, Pieren<pieren3 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> I would say the exact opposite. The tag 'name' is what you see on the
>> facade. The (optional) tag 'operator' is the name of the chain but we should
>> not suggest to not use 'name' otherwise we will have different tagging when
>> restaurants/hotels are part or not of a chain.
>
> No according to the wiki:
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:operator

As others have pointed out, 'brand' may be a better choice of 'name' in some 
cases, but in reality there are THREE possible tags in many of these cases. For 
example
name=the fancy hotel
brand=best western
operator=the local best western franchise

Our local supermarket is a budgens but ...
brand=budgens
operator=Guy Warner Group
In this case the 'name' might be 'Guy Warner Budgens' as appears on the local sign.

petrol stations and other 'franchise' type operations will have the same more 
complex relations ... BUT for example, I have a 'fast fuel' fuel card which can 
be used at any Texaco garage, but the operator of those garages may not be 
Texaco, so should I be adding a 'fastfuel'=yes tag or brand=Texaco to identify 
this ... Just another piece of the branding jigsaw.

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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