Best Western International recently launched two new global hotel products, Vîb (as in vibrant) an urban boutique hotel concept and the BW Premier Collection, a soft brand targeting upscale and luxury independent hotels. After unveiling the new offerings at the brand’s North American Convention, the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin is the first opportunity for international developers and investors to see and learn about the brand’s global development strategy for these two new hotel products.
“We believe Vîb is a particularly good fit for the major cities in Europe because of its design and business model and the BW Premier Collection is an attractive proposition for independent hotels who want to lessen their reliance on online travel agencies without a long-term commitment. We think the unique pay-for-performance fee structure of the BW Premier Collection will be very attractive to independent hoteliers,” said Best Western President and CEO David Kong.
The first hotel to join the BW Premier Collection hotel was the Hotel Mäster Johan, a first-class 68-room boutique hotel in the heart of Malmö, Sweden. The Hotel Mäster Johan is a recipient of the prestigious 2014 TripAdvisor Travelers Choice award.
In addition to developing the Vîb and BW Premier Collection brands, the company is focused on continuing to enhance the quality of its hotels globally and maintaining a strong development pipeline for the BEST WESTERN®, BEST WESTERN PLUS® and BEST WESTERN PREMIER® brands. Currently Best Western’s international pipeline has 290 projects in development. Highlights include:
• Projects in the pipeline for Europe are currently 35 percent new construction with 37 percent of the projects either BEST WESTERN PLUS or BEST WESTERN PREMIER.
• In the South American countries of Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela new construction projects make up 96 percent of the pipeline with 48 percent being BEST WESTERN PLUS or BEST WESTERN PREMIER.
• The pipeline in the Asia-Pacific region is comprised of 89 percent new construction projects with 35 percent either BEST WESTERN PLUS or BEST WESTERN PREMIER projects.
“While development as a whole in Europe hasn’t rebounded as quickly as we would like, we are very pleased with our development opportunities in countries like Poland, France, Great Britain and Germany. We also really like the strong growth and future prospects we see in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia,” said Kong.
Best Western’s portfolio of hotel products offers development opportunities spanning the midscale to upper upscale segments:
BEST WESTERN PREMIER: The company’s upscale hotel offering earns an average daily rate (ADR) of $134. Since 2011 the portfolio of BEST WESTERN PREMIER branded hotels has grown to almost 150 worldwide.
BW Premier CollectionSM: Best Western’s new soft brand consists of independent upscale and luxury hotels in destination and major markets. The unique pay-for-performance fee structures means hoteliers only pay fees for business earned through Best Western channels.
BEST WESTERN PLUS: Since introducing the upper midscale PLUS descriptor in 2011, the global footprint of BEST WESTERN PLUS hotels has grown to more than 1,000. With a North American ADR of $105 BEST WESTERN PLUS provides an excellent return on investment (ROI).
BEST WESTERN PLUS EXECUTIVE RESIDENCYSM: This upper midscale extended stay hotel is designed to generate a superior ROI. In the steadily growing extended stay segment, the average occupancy rate is 80 percent and ADR is up six percent.
VībSM: Best Western’s new chic, hip boutique concept is designed to combine value and style for today’s traveler and is unique to the midscale segment. Development strategy, for this boutique concept, is focused on major markets.
BEST WESTERN: With a global footprint of more than 2,700 hotels and a North American ADR of $90 BEST WESTERN outperforms the competition in the midscale segment.
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