Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Hotels |
Founded | 1946 |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Number of locations | 4,700 (worldwide) [1] |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
Revenue | US$247,000,000 (2019) |
Number of employees | 1,254 (2012) |
Parent | BWH Hotel Group |
Website | www |
Footnotes /references Data from Hoover's factsheet |
Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. [1] The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, [2] includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. [3] The brand was founded by M. K. Guertin in 1946. As of December 2021, Larry Cuculic is the president and CEO of Best Western.
In 1964 Canadian hotel owners joined the system. Best Western then expanded to Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand in 1976.
In 2002 Best Western International launched Best Western Premier in Europe and Asia. (The other hotels in the chain were known as Best Western.) In 2011, the chain's branding system-wide changed to a three-tiered system: Best Western, Best Western Plus, and Best Western Premier. [4]
Best Western began in the years following World War II. At the time, most hotels were either large urban properties or smaller family-owned roadside hotels. In California, a network of independent hotel operators began making referrals of each other to travelers. This "referral system" consisted of phone calls between one desk operator and another. This small and informal network eventually grew into the modern Best Western hotel brand founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946. [5]
The name "Best Western" originated from the fact that most of the chain's original operators were west of the Mississippi River in the United States. By 1962 Best Western had the only hospitality reservations service covering the entire United States, and in 1963, was the largest motel brand in the industry with 699 member properties and 35,201 rooms. From 1946 to 1964 Best Western had a marketing partnership with Quality Courts, the forerunner of the chain known today as Quality Inns, whose properties were located mostly east of the Mississippi River, and thus not in direct competition with Best Western. This partnership made sense geographically, but was not successful in the long run, and was eventually abandoned. In 1964 Best Western launched an expansion effort of its own operations east of the Mississippi under the name "Best Eastern" for those properties with the same typeset and Gold Crown logo as "Best Western." By 1967 the "Best Eastern" name was dropped and all motels from coast-to-coast got the "Best Western" name and Gold Crown, a move that would further enhance an already successful marketing brand into the "World's Largest Hotel Chain" by the 1970s.
Best Western's "Gold Crown" logo was introduced in 1964 and would continue with a few minor revisions over the next 32 years, until it was replaced by a blue and yellow logo in 1996. In 2015, Best Western introduced a new family of logos, replacing the core logo and adding signage for Best Western Plus and Best Western Premier.
Best Western purchased WorldHotels [6] in February 2019 adding approximately 360 additional hotels and 81,248 more rooms to its brand. [7] BWH Hotel Group was formed as the parent company of Best Western and WorldHotels following this acquisition. [8]
Best Western used to call itself a cooperative membership association and, as such, could be seen as a co-op. Around 1985, it abandoned the "cooperative" terminology after courts insisted on calling it a franchisor despite its nonprofit status. The most dramatic example of this was Quist v. Best Western Int'l, Inc., 354 N.W.2d 656 (N.D. 1984), [9] in which the North Dakota Supreme Court decided that Best Western was a franchisor and had to comply with the appropriate laws and regulations.
Best Western GB began in 1978 when Interchange Hotels of the United Kingdom consisting of independent hoteliers from key locations in the UK elected to trade under the brand name Best Western United Kingdom, effectively an affiliate of Best Western International in the US. Now there are over 260 Best Western hotels within Great Britain.
In 1981, Homestead Motor Inns of Australia affiliated with Best Western. This move put 'International' after the Best Western name. The company has since been known as Best Western International.
In early 2007 Best Western Australia took over the rights to operate Best Western properties in New Zealand from the previous company, the Motel Federation of New Zealand. This was a bold but beneficial move for the brand as it made way for better quality properties to be brought into the brand. Currently, Best Western Australia has 205 properties in the group (11 in New Zealand and 194 in Australia).
On 21 May 2013 Best Western International announced that it will take over management of the Green Hill Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar. The acquisition gave the Best Western brand a place presence in Myanmar (Burma) as its first hotel establishment in the country. [10] [11]
As of August 2023, BWH Hotels has 19 brands and logos. [12] Since 1948 the Best Western logo has had approximately 13 modification to the main brand logo, with the last brand logo change made in 2015. In 2010 Best Western divided the brand into 3 descriptors.
The logo stayed the same, but the descriptors of Plus and Premier were added, and all hotels were either a Best Western, Best Western Plus, or Best Western Premier. In 2015, a complete overhaul of the Best Western logo resulted in a very different logo from the previous years, with the most notable change being the removal of the crown which had been a part of the logo since 1962.
Since 2014 the brand has created 12 additional brands, for a total of 15 brands with distinctive logos. The Best Western website has a picture of all of their past logos in their "timeline and story" section. [7] Best Western also owns (acquired in February 2019 [6] ) the WorldHotels Collection [13] which includes 4 additional brands, whose logos are all the same, except for the addition of the distinguishing descriptors of Luxury, Elite, Distinctive, and Crafted.
The following 19 brands of Best Western are: [14] [15]
These properties are categorized by BWH as "Aspirational".
BW Premier Collection and BW Signature Collection are categorized by BWH as "Collection"; Vīb, Sadie and Aiden are categorized as "Boutique"; Best Western Premier, Best Western Plus and Glō are categorized as "Timeless"; and Executive Residency and @Home are categorized as "Extended Stay".
Best Western is categorized as "Timeless"; SureStay, SureStay Signature Collection and SureStay Plus are categorized as "Value"; and SureStay Studio is categorized as "Extended Stay".
As of 2018, it was nonprofit owned by its franchisee members. [16]
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat-screen television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacation properties. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts is one of the businesses managed by the Pritzker family.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was one of the largest companies that owned, operated, franchised and managed hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties. It was acquired by Marriott International in 2016.
Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division of Bass Brewery from 1988-2000, Six Continents from 2000-03, and IHG Hotels & Resorts since 2003. It operates hotels under the names Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and Holiday Inn Resorts. As at 2018, Holiday Inn has hotels at over 1,100 locations.
Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging including hotel, residential and timeshare properties. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company was founded by J. Willard Marriott (1900–1985) and his wife Alice Marriott (1907–2000).
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an American international hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean, in addition to 84 hotels with 23,092 rooms in the pipeline.
Red Roof Inn is an American economy hotel chain in the United States with over 600 properties globally, primarily in the Midwest, Southern, and Eastern United States. Red Roof Inn is a pet-friendly hotel chain.
Ramada is a large American multinational hotel chain owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. As of December 31, 2022, it operates 851 hotels with 120,344 rooms across 63 countries under the Ramada brand.
Choice Hotels International, Inc. is an American multinational hospitality company based in North Bethesda, Maryland. The company, which is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, owns several hotel brands ranging from upscale to economy. As of the third quarter 2023, Choice Hotels franchised nearly 7,500 hotels, representing nearly 630,000 rooms, in 46 countries and territories.
Travelodge refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. As of December 31, 2018, it has 435 properties with 31,005 rooms.
Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) is a public sector undertaking that conducts and regulates the tourism activities in the Indian state of Kerala. The KTDC is headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram and has offices across all the districts of Kerala. The agency also operates hotels, resorts, and tourist rest houses in key locations in the state. Its official slogan is "Official host to God's own country." It is one of the most profitable ventures of the Kerala government.
The Pan PacificHotels and Resorts (泛太平洋酒店及度假村) is a hospitality company headquartered in Singapore and founded in 1975. It is a subsidiary of developer UOL Group and operates more than 20 luxury hotels, resorts and serviced suites across Asia, North America, Oceania, and Europe.
Vantage Hospitality Group Inc. was an American hotel corporation, operating hotels in the United States and internationally. Its brands include Best Value Inn and Lexington by Vantage. In 2016, Vantage Hospitality Group was acquired by Red Lion Hotels Corp.
Red Lion Hotels Corporation, doing business as RLH Corporation, is an American hospitality corporation that primarily engages in the franchising, management and ownership of upscale, mid-scale and economy hotels.
A referral hotel chain is a type of hotel franchise. It is a type of hotel that operates independently but maintains affiliation with a given chain. To stay within the chain, the hotel must meet certain minimum criteria.
Best Western GB is an independently owned and managed hotel chain in Great Britain and the Channel Islands with over 260 two-, three- and four-star properties. Best Western GB provides sales, revenue and marketing services to all of its member hotels. Best Western Hotels GB is the international trading name of Interchange and Consort Hotels Limited.
The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
Merile Key (M.K.) Guertin was the founder of Best Western and was known in the hospitality industry as Mr. Motel.