Best Western® Hotels & Resorts Showcases "Today's Best Western" With Behind the Brands Series

With the Completion of a Successful, Award-Winning Brand Refresh, Best Western Hotels & Resorts' Portfolio Now Features 11 Brands, Fresh Design, Upgraded Services & Innovative Amenities and It's Not Stopping

PHOENIX, March 8, 2018 /CNW/ -- When Best Western Hotels & Resorts launched a transformative brand refresh in 2015, the primary objective was to signal that Best Western is a contemporary and relevant brand, worthy of today's travelers. It is also intended to enhance the brand's image as an innovative, forward-thinking industry leader. Now, with the introduction of a "Today's Best Western" campaign that will run throughout 2018, including a "Behind the Brands" series, travelers are getting a look at the evolution of this powerhouse hospitality brand.

"Best Western has been undergoing a brand resurgence during the past ten years," said David Kong, President and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts. "Our brand refresh with new logos showcases our exciting brands and positions Best Western as a leader in its respective chain scale segments. We are proud of our continuous innovation, which has enabled us to achieve record RevPAR Index, unrivaled industry recognition, and unprecedented guest satisfaction."

Best Western Hotels & Resorts continues to experience tremendous growth in both size and scale, as well as penetration in diverse markets globally. Recent achievements for the company, in large part due to the success of the brand refresh, include:

• Distinctive Brand Portfolio – To add to the iconic brands – Best Western®, Best Western Plus®, and Best Western Premier® – the company has launched eight new global brands since 2015. This includes a series of cutting-edge concepts catering to a new generation of travelers with the new-build Vīb® and GLō® brands, as well as soft brand options for most chain scale segments – upper economy and midscale (SureStay Collection® by Best Western), upper midscale (BW Signature Collection® by Best Western) and upscale and upper upscale (BW Premier Collection®). With a focus on providing unique, dual-branded properties combining the best of the Best Western Plus and Executive Residency by Best Western® brands.
• Growth Around the World – In addition to an impressive pipeline of 296 hotels in North America, Best Western is also growing across the globe. In particular, Best Western opened nine new hotels in Asia in 2017 - with locations in Myanmar, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. These have included two brands that are entirely new to the region - BW Premier Collection and SureStay Plus® Hotel by Best Western. The company received recognition as the "Best Debut Hotel Chain" at the 2017 India Hospitality Awards, with plans to open six hotels in India and three in Bangladesh in 2018.
• Rising Guest Satisfaction – Best Western has enjoyed significant increases to guest satisfaction ratings in the past 10 years, with scores doubling since 2007. This stems from the award-winning I Care® Every Guest, Every Time hotel staff training program, the $2 billion spent on strategic renovations following the Design Excellence program and the rollout of the descriptor program. In 2017, Best Western announced an impressive 1,956 Best Western-branded hotels globally received the 2017 TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence recognition, yielding the brand's highest level of guest satisfaction to date.
• Continuous Innovation - With the 2017 global launch of the new Best Western Mobile Guest Engagement Platform – which includes web-based guest communications tools pre-arrival, on property and at check-out – Best Western continues to show its commitment to implementing new technology that enhances the customer journey. Named one of Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in AR/VR for 2017, Best Western's brand refresh has encompassed a number of technological advancements including the Best Western Virtual Reality Experience (BWVRE), which gives guests an immersive 360-degree look into all of the brand's North American hotels – making Best Western the first major company of its size and scale to utilize this cutting-edge technology in this way. The reimagined BestWestern.com optimizes customer interactions across all digital channels, while incorporating highly visual, interactive elements.
• Award-Winning Loyalty Program - Best Western has continued to make valuable enhancements to its award-winning loyalty program Best Western Rewards® (BWR®). By offering more rewards and recognition for Elite members and generous promotions for members of all levels, BWR's membership has grown to more than 32 million members globally – representing gains of nearly 14 percent annually, since the beginning of the refresh. BWR achieved a top five ranking in U.S. News & World Report's 2017-2018 Best Hotel Rewards Programs and runner-up status in WalletHub's 2017 Best Hotel Rewards Program. With a goal to bring real value to today's travelers with instant rewards and gratification, BWR offers a lower point level threshold relative to other hotel brands, enables members to redeem free nights at any of Best Western's 4,200+ hotels worldwide, and awards points that don't expire and don't have blackout dates. On top of this, the newly unveiled Experiences by Best Western Rewards now provides members with exclusive, one-of-a-kind experiences in some of the most sought-after destinations around the world.
• Awards Across the Board - Best Western continues to set industry records regarding awards and accolades. Several notable distinctions received in 2017 include: a Top Breakfast Ranking from J.D. Power's 2017 Guest Survey; Best Western Plus and Best Western ranking number one in upper-mid-price and mid-price hotel brands respectively by Business Travel News^®; 65 Adrian Awards for excellence in digital marketing, advertising and public relations; the company's ninth consecutive AAA®/CAA® Lodging Partner of the Year award; and a gold Recommend Readers' Choice Award in the Hotels/Resorts category.

Today's Best Western features 11 brands, each with its own logo and distinctive personality. The company's new "Behind the Brands" series will dive deeper into each individual brand, further illustrating the differences for travelers.  Best Western rolls out the "Behind the Brands" series later this month, with a sneak peek into the continued evolution of BW Premier Collection.

For more information on Best Western Hotels & Resorts, please visit BestWestern.com.   

About Best Western® Hotels & Resorts:

Best Western Hotels & Resorts headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is a privately held hotel brand with a global network of 4,200* hotels in more than 100* countries and territories worldwide. Best Western offers 11 hotel brands to suit the needs of developers and guests in every market: Best Western®, Best Western Plus®, Best Western Premier®, Vīb®, GLō®, Executive Residency by Best Western®, BW Premier Collection®, and BW Signature Collection^SM by Best Western; as well as its recently launched franchise offerings: SureStay® Hotel by Best Western, SureStay Plus® Hotel by Best Western and SureStay Collection® by Best Western. Now celebrating more than 70 years of hospitality, Best Western provides its hoteliers with global operational, sales and marketing support, and award-winning online and mobile booking capabilities. Best Western continues to set industry records regarding awards and accolades, including 64 percent of the brand's North American hotels earning a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award in 2017, Business Travel News® ranking Best Western Plus and Best Western number one in upper-mid-price and mid-price hotel brands, and Best Western receiving seven consecutive Dynatrace® Best of the Web awards for its leading hotel website. Best Western has also won nine consecutive AAA®/CAA® Lodging Partner of the Year awards, recognizing the brand's commitment to providing exceptional service and great value to AAA/CAA's nearly 58 million members in the U.S. and Canada. Best Western-branded hotels were top ranked in J.D. Power's 2017 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study – ranking first in breakfast (food and beverage category) for midscale; and second in overall guest satisfaction. Over 32 million travelers are members of the brand's award-winning loyalty program Best Western Rewards®, one of the few programs in which members earn points that never expire and can be redeemed at any Best Western hotel worldwide. Best Western's partnerships with AAA/CAA and Harley-Davidson® provide travelers with exciting ways to interact with the brand. Through its partnership with Google® Street View, Best Western is the first major company of its size and scale to launch a virtual reality experience for customers, setting a new industry standard and reinventing how guests view hotels.

* All Best Western and SureStay-branded hotels are independently owned and operated.

* Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.

SOURCE Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Media Contact: Kelly Dalton , Director, Communications , 602.957.5752, [email protected]; Samantha Jacobs or Jennifer Rosa , Hemsworth Communications, 954.716.7614, [email protected]