Best Western Hotels & Resorts acquired the marketing
consortium WorldHotels, which represents about 300 mostly independent hotels,
last week. Best Western president and CEO David Kong told BTN that WorldHotels expands
the Best Western portfolio into upper-upscale and luxury segments important to its
corporate clients. "It enables us to provide a suite of options to our big
travel buyers, who may have C-suite executives who need access to WorldHotels' type
of property but also [client teams] or training groups that find Best Western a
good fit," he said. "We can now provide solutions end to end, which
makes us more desirable."
Best Western has been aggressively pursuing an end-to-end
portfolio, diversifying into 13 brands over the past several years and most
recently breaking into the boutique and upper-upscale markets with its Aiden,
Sadie, Vib and Glo properties.
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While WorldHotels offers a "halo" effect for Best
Western, the solid midscale player offers WorldHotels robust technologies and
the leverage that comes with an established volume player, said Kong.
Best Western's online travel agency agreements will lower commissions
WorldHotels pays out for bookings. The company will gain access to Best
Western's e-commerce platform, its mobile app platform and its sales and
marketing machinery. The pair also plan a WorldHotels loyalty program to help the
soft brand not only outperform its closest competitors, such as The Leading
Hotels of the World, but begin to compete with the bigger luxury players. Best
Western also sees WorldHotels as an opportunity to expand its meetings
business.
WorldHotels CEO Geoff Andrew will stay on in his current
role, and the brands will remain independent. "We want to have some
separation on the front end so the WorldHotels folks don't feel like Best
Western is trying to administer their brand," said Kong. On the other
hand, he added, "we can help WorldHotels unlock its potential."