Best Western's Plans for Newer Brands & White Label Franchise

Just six years ago, Best Western Hotels & Resorts—Best Western International at the time—used a single brand for its entire portfolio. It since has adopted tiers for Best Western brands and launched four new brands. Now, the company is planning a rapid expansion of its new white label franchise model, SureStay Hotel Group.

BW began selling the franchise Dec. 1, SVP and COO Ron Pohl told BTN, and signed 30 hotels in the first 45 days, mostly under the SureStay and SureStay Plus brands. "We've had a lot of traction early," Pohl said. "We have a couple hotels open, but we expect to have 100 hotels open by year-end."

SureStay operates as a separate subsidiary from BW, but property owners can use BW's infrastructure and distribution channels. BW's sales team also will represent SureStay properties, something chief marketing officer Dorothy Dowling said will help BW offer more solutions to travel buyers. "We're going to be in a lot of long-tail markets that we didn't have with Best Western," she said. "We're going to have more opportunities for them, and they're going to know that we stand behind that service commitment and the product."

One of the criteria for owners to franchise with SureStay is a property rating of at least 3.5 on TripAdvisor. "In the buying community, when they buy to that premium economy or lower midscale, they want to be assured that their customer is going to have a good experience," Dowling said. As part of the onboarding process, BW works with new franchisors for two to three weeks to ensure service will be a continuing priority. Another priority, Pohl said, is that the hotel has comfortable beds, free breakfast, a good shower experience and free Wi-Fi.

In development of BW's own brands, Pohl said the company will continue to build its presence in primary and secondary markets. "Certainly BW Premier and Vib are hotel products that are intended for primary and urban markets, which really are what we need from an inventory perspective to attract more business travelers," Pohl said. "Premier and Premier Collection continue to be some of our fastest-growing brands aside from Plus. All of those are in primary and secondary markets."

BW will open its first U.S. Vib hotels this year—one already opened in Turkey—in Springfield, Ill., Chicago Midway and Staten Island, N.Y. Two more are in the pipeline in Miami and one in Dallas. BW Premier boasts 28 properties in North America and 97 internationally, with a global pipeline of 58 hotels. Premier Collection, BW's soft brand, has 16 properties in North America, 37 elsewhere in the world and 23 in the works globally.

The company also is nearing the finish line for its brand refresh, introduced in 2015. New signage with the company's updated logos is on display at almost 1,200 hotels in North America, according to Pohl, and all hotels in the region will have the new signage in place by the end of the year. BW expects updated signs to be in place around the world by the end of 2018.

"Customer feedback is that [the refresh] is doing exactly what we'd hoped," Pohl said. "It communicates that fresh image of Best Western and ties back to our new products and all of the investments all of our owners have made into their properties."

The company, too, is revamping its Best Western Rewards program. Each member now has a digital membership card that provides easy access to his or her membership number, point balance and tier level, as well as member deals and offers. "We find more and more that [loyalty] translates into the business travel space because virtually every travel buyer today needs loyalty to drive compliance, so it's certainly part of every conversation," Dowling said.