Best Western Premier Gets Start In Europe

NEW YORK— Best Western International last week selected Europe as its testing ground to break out a select group of hotels that will be marketed as Best Western Premier, a designation the global chain hopes will help clarify the independent brand’s diverse property offerings. After making the announcement in Berlin at the Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB) BW president/CEO Jim Evans explained to HOTEL BUSINESS® Premier was neither a brand extension nor a segmentation. “We have over 4,000 hotels in over 80 countries around the world. We are trying to describe and identify a unique set of hotels— only in Europe at this stage of the game, and maybe only Europe forever— that are midmarket properties, definitely not upper end, but that have a few more services, unique design and stand out more than just a motor hotel would,” said Evans. Indeed, in the BW European mix in particular are castles, landmark buildings that are hundreds of years old, boutique style hotels, and other unique properties. “Some customers would stay in those hotels and just couldn’t believe it was a Best Western, and the next day stay in a property from 1992. There was such a difference people said: ‘I need to know what I’m buying’; travel agents said the same thing,” said Evans. Toward that, Evans said Best Western decided “the worst thing we could do would be to create a new brand. Other brands have tried to reach upmarket, we didn’t believe we could do that.” Instead, BW will look to put the trademarked Premier name on hotels that must meet a 27-point “checklist” of flexible attributes — beyond BW’s 14 BestRequests standards— ranging from amenities and services to design components. While there may be obvious candidates for the Premier designation, it will be up to the property owner to step forward and apply for it. Best Western will not aggressively pursue such properties in order to build the portfolio. “The hotel owner has to volunteer, raise his hand and say: ‘I want to be a Best Western Premier hotel.’ That’s how we’ll identify the hotels,” said Evans. To date, about 70 applications have been received from a variety of countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Evans expects to have 125-150 hotels by 2003, with the first cut in applicants coming as soon as third-quarter this year. And while Best Western does not dictate pricing, the CEO anticipated Premier would have a premium over “traditional” BWs. Ken Smotherman, BW chairman of the board, said there has been some interest in the concept by North American properties, “but we have not polled our members to ask them. They understand it will be implemented in Europe first, and we’ll see how it goes there before we decide what to do.” “The Europeans basically raised their hands as this being an important issue for them,” said Evans. “I think the idea of trying to launch this worldwide right now would be too cumbersome. “We’re not trying to change Best Western in any way,” he added. “What we’re trying to do is really offer an identifier and say: Okay, I know that’s a nicer Best Western.” He estimated 400-500 properties might see the designation over the next five years.