During the company's annual convention in October, BWH Hotel Group board chair Ishwar Naran cited a McKinsey & Co. report that found an opportunity for the Best Western Plus brand to win more midweek corporate business. To achieve that, Best Western Plus must be more competitive in design and brand standards, he said.
As a result, BWH Hotel Group, taking the McKinsey findings—which showed the rate gap between Best Western Plus and Best Western had shrunk from about $20 per night to about $6—as well as additional qualitative and quantitative research, came up with new standards to better distinguish the Best Western Plus brand to attract new customers and maintain current ones, BWH Hotel Group SVP and COO Ron Pohl told BTN.
"That is where the ballot initiative came out in identifying the top 10 to 15 items to make product enhancements and improve the guest experience," Pohl said. "But based on timing of what we've been through [with the pandemic], we're taking a commonsense approach on how to implement meaningful changes over the next two to three years that are affordable for hotel owners to implement, with the most important items in the beginning phase of that, with the [remaining ones] toward the end of the three-year implementation program."
Pohl was referring to three ballot initiatives Best Western launched about a week after the convention that addressed changes to the brand's standards—with two of the three related to changes that would affect brands beyond just Best Western Plus. All three initiatives passed in November, he added.
Brand Enhancements
Among the changes is a new requirement that Best Western Plus mattresses have some type of pillow top. There also will be requirements for in-room single-serve K-cup coffee makers or a similar set-up, as well as a 24-hour offering of specialty coffee in the lobby or breakfast area, with enhanced offerings such as lattes and cappuccinos. All are due for implementation by the end of 2022, Pohl said.
Best Western also found a disconnect in its fitness center product offerings in both the size of the rooms and the quality of the equipment, Pohl said. Beginning in 2023, the brand will require Peloton or similar equipment it its fitness rooms "because there is obviously a large following—more than 2 million people who search and use Peloton equipment in selecting their hotel stay," he added.
Lobby community tables, music and water dispensers also will be enhanced, he said.
The final phase covers the size and technology capabilities of guest room TVs, an area that "moves pretty fast." Pohl said. Best Western sees a lot of requests for streaming and casting, and that hotels today typically offer one or the other but not necessarily both. By the end of 2024, Pohl said the company's hotels will require a smart-capability TV of 50 inches or larger in each room across all three brands—Best Western Plus, along with Best Western and Best Western Premier—offering both steaming and casting capabilities.
Best Western at some point also will start a design cycle for its Best Western Plus hotels, with timing dependent on the pandemic, Pohl added.
Plans to Attract More Business Travelers
Best Western across all its brands has roughly a two-thirds to one-third mix of leisure travel to business travel, Pohl said, adding that weekend business for Best Western Plus is "far above where we were in 2019, both in rate and occupancy." To draw in more midweek business travelers, Pohl said SVP and CMO Dorothy Dowling's team is talking to key customers, particularly those with whom Best Western conducted qualitative research.
"Most importantly, we've brought back our entire sales team," Pohl added, "and we are continuing to see the return of business travel."
Pohl added that development is key to the strategy, and that the growth of Best Western Plus in primary urban markets was "slightly below where our competing brands have grown, so if you have more inventory in those markets, you're going to attract more business travelers. The key focus for us is to ensure we can have more inventory available in primary, secondary, downtown markets where a lot of the business demand is and attract those customers midweek."
The challenge for Best Western Plus, however, is that more than 50 percent of the brand's hotels were pre-pandemic new construction, and "today, new construction is not something many people are thinking about," Pohl said. "We have evolved some of our standards to ensure we can get more inventory in these markets from a conversion approach and that they are competitive in their marketplace."
Pohl estimates that 50 to 75 Best Western Plus properties could join the company in 2022. "It's one of our faster-growing brands," he said.