Best Western Ensures Quality Consistency Systemwide

Best Western International, the membership association of 4,100 midprice hotels around the world, this month rolled out its quality assurance program to its 1,800 properties in 82 countries outside of North America.

Underlying the rollout was the growing importance of consistency of hotels at the midprice level. Travel managers need to be sure that properties they're negotiating with in Europe, Asia and Latin America provide a consistent level of service and amenities that their travelers, accustomed to U.S.-style accommodations, can depend upon.

"Outside of North America, there are now 14 criteria in place that properties must conform to, if they're to be accepted into the Best Western system or allowed to remain," said James Evans, president and CEO. "Travel managers, and ultimately the business travelers they represent, have to be confident, not only that minimum quality standards will be met, but that the standards are in effect at any Best Western they visit around the world, regardless of what the local custom or culture might be."

The 14 "Best Requests" include having dataport connections available in all guest rooms, televisions that offer at least one English-language news channel and photocopy machines available on-property during regular business hours. Other criteria ensure the availability of such amenities as bottled water, hair dryers, irons and ironing boards, and, therefore, affect guest comfort more than business services.

As hotel brands increasingly saturated global markets in recent years, many travel buyers gravitated toward negotiating with upscale and upper upscale brands in these parts of the world, precisely because they had greater confidence that this price point could deliver on quality, as opposed to the midprice, economy or budget segments of the industry. "The difference between the midmarket and the upper markets isn't cleanliness any longer. It isn't staff attitude. It's been about amenities and now that our new product standards are in place, we can compete on that count as well," Evans said.

Critical to the effectiveness of any quality program—and especially at a membership association, such as Best Western, where properties are independently owned—is enforcement. Consequently, about 170 properties have left the Best Western system since 2000.

In North America, the quality assurance initiative includes two additional criteria, both of which involve in-room telephone charges. "In North America, we're able to provide free long-distance access and free local calls under 30 minutes," said Christopher Cope, managing director for worldwide sales in this region. "Internationally, there were just too many differences in local telecom services and tariffs to be able to make these things a consistent brand standard."