Best Western Hotels Takes a Closer Look at the Evolution of its Legacy Brand

Bangkok (Thailand) – April 20, 2018 (travelindex) – Wherever Life Takes You, Best Western is There – and for more than 70 years, Best Western Hotels & Resorts flagship midscale hotel brand – Best Western – has been there welcoming travelers with superior value and quality guest service. As part of Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ “Today’s Best Western” campaign launched earlier this year, this month, the company is going “Behind the Brands” with a closer look at the evolution of its original Best Western brand.

“Our timeless Best Western brand is trusted across the globe for providing exceptional offerings, service and value to leisure and business travelers alike,” said David Kong, President and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts. “We’re excited to highlight the iconic brand that started it all for our company and to celebrate the extraordinary, ongoing evolution Best Western has experienced over the past 72 years.”

The evolution of Best Western has been one to watch, and as the brand itself has innovated from within, the industry has followed suit. Founded in 1946 as Best Western Motels, Best Western has driven change through a number of industry firsts in technology, guest satisfaction and more. Some of the brand’s milestone moments include:

– 1962 – Best Western offered the only hospitality reservations service covering the entire United States.
– 1963 – Best Western was the largest motel chain in the industry with 699 member properties and 35,201 rooms.
– 1974 – Best Western eliminated the word “motel” from its name and began competing directly with other full-service lodging chains, while expanding internationally the following year.
– 1988 – The award-winning Best Western Rewards® (“BWR®”) program was launched to bring extra value to travelers and developers.
– 1995 – Best Western introduced its first listings on the Internet.
– 2004 – Best Western launched the hotel industry’s largest High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) initiative with the fastest implementation. In just eight months, the company established free wireless or hard-wired HSIA in some portion of the public areas, and at least 15 percent of rooms, at all of its North American properties.
– 2007 – Best Western began using online surveys to keep track of customer satisfaction, one of the first steps in leading the industry in superior customer care.
– 2011 – Best Western celebrated its 65th birthday. With new sister brands Best Western Plus® and Best Western Premier® launched, The World’s Biggest Hotel Family tagline was introduced in the United States and Canada.
– 2012 – Best Western introduced advanced cleaning technologies at its North American properties, becoming the first hotel brand to empower housekeeping staff to set a new standard for guest care through the use of UV wands, black lights and clean remotes.
– 2015 – Best Western experienced a major transformation with the company’s all-encompassing brand refresh, which reinvigorated the brand with groundbreaking initiatives that bring real value to today’s travelers. To signal this modern transformation across brands, the company redesigned the flagship Best Western logo to utilize hand drawn lettering, which is familiar and personable and pulls through the company’s updated blue color. The centerpiece globe comes to life through the use of special effects such as gradient, highlighting and a 3-D treatment. These effects are distinctive within the hotel industry, which traditionally uses two-dimensional logos.

With more than 2,100 locations across the globe and more than 150 in the pipeline today, Best Western is a renowned midscale brand designed for business and leisure travelers seeking first-rate amenities, superior accommodations and incomparable service. Designed to perform positively in almost any location, developers in primary and secondary markets choose the Best Western core brand for its highly-competitive fee structure and industry-leading support, which helps drive more revenue directly to their bottom lines.

Best Western hotels feature contemporary style and spacious accommodations with modern entertainment systems, in-room coffee makers and desks/workspaces; high speed complimentary wireless internet as well as free local & long-distance calls; convenient business and fitness centers and Orgnx® natural, refreshing bath products with carefully selected, nutrient-rich ingredients. The brand’s top-ranked “Build Your Own Breakfast” offers hot, healthy, customizable options available complimentary at most locations, as well.

Staying at a Best Western is now even more rewarding! Book one night at participating hotels in Asia and get up to 50 percent off the second night when you pay with your Citibank credit card! Guests will also be awarded BWR points. This offer is valid from now until December 31, 2018.

For more information on Best Western Hotels & Resorts, please visit BestWesternHotelAsia.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 CollectionSM 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.

Contact information:
Marketing Communications Department
Best Western Hotels and Resorts – Asia
Tel: +66 2 656 1260
Sirimanas Maungrod
Email: sirimanas.maungrod@bestwestern.com
Orapan Sornnuwat
Email: orapan.sornnuwat@bestwestern.com