Best Western

Best Western International, Inc.

Type	Marketing cooperative
Founded	1946 (1946)
Headquarters	Phoenix, Arizona,  United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	M. K. Guertin, founder David Kong, President and CEO[1]
Industry	Hotels
Revenue	US$206 million (2006)
Operating income	– US$5 million (2004)
Net income	– US$3.5 million (2004)
Total assets	US$70 million (2004)
Total equity	US$15 million (2004)
Members	4,000 approximately
Employees	1,076 (2006)
Website	bestwestern.com
Data from Hoover's factsheet

Best Western International, Inc. is the world's largest hotel chain, with over 4,000 hotels in nearly 80 countries. The chain, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona,^[2] operates more than 2,000 hotels in North America alone. Best Western has a marketing program involving placement of free Wi-Fi access hotspots in its hotels. Since year 2002 Best Western International created an upscale brand for some properties located in Europe and Asia: Best Western Premier.

Unlike other chains, which are often a mix of company-owned and franchised units, each Best Western hotel is an independently owned and operated franchise. Best Western does not offer franchises in the traditional sense (where both franchisee and franchisor are operating for-profit), however. Rather, Best Western operates as a nonprofit membership association, with each franchisee acting and voting as a member of the association.

Business model

Best Western charges a rate that is based on an initial cost plus a fee for each additional room. Best Western also publishes a list of standards that each hotel needs to maintain. Instead of long term contracts, each hotel renews its membership on a yearly basis, with a renewal rate of well over 90%.

Best Western on The Bowery, Chinatown, New York City

The hotels are allowed to keep their independent identity. Though they must use Best Western signage and identify themselves as a Best Western hotel, the hotels are allowed the option of using their own independent name as part of their identity (for example Best Western Adobe Inn).

In USA the properties can either be traditional roadside motels, motor inns, or full-service hotels. There are also many smaller "mini-chains" that are owned by the same management within Best Western; for example the Best Western Midway Hotels found in the Midwestern United States. Outside USA the properties are mainly hotels.

History

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 small and informal network eventually grew into the modern Best Western hotel chain founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946.

The name "Best Western" was a result of most of their properties originally being located in the Western part of the United States west of the Mississippi River. 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. While this partnership made sense geographically, it did not go over well in the long run, and was abandoned. In 1964, Best Western launched an expansion effort of its own operations east of the Mississippi by using the moniker "Best Eastern" for those properties with the same typestyle 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.

Corporate logos of Best Western

Best Western's "Gold Crown" logo was introduced in 1964 and would continue with a few minor revisions over the next 30 years until it was replaced by the current blue and yellow logo in 1994.

Legal dispute

Best Western used to call itself a cooperative membership association, and as such could be seen as a co-op. Around 1985, it gave up on using the "cooperative" terminology after the courts kept insisting 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),^[3] 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 Australia and New Zealand

In 1981, Homestead Motor Inns of Australia affiliated with Best Western. This move put 'International' after the Best Western name. The company has been known as Best Western International ever since.

In early 2007, Best Western Australasia 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 Australasia has 205 properties in the group (11 in New Zealand and 194 in Australia).

Awards

Best Western received Hotel Vikas diamond award in 2010. This award is reported to be given under Family Friendly Hotel category to Best Western. Best Western CEO - David Kong accepted this award. ^[4]

References

Further reading

• 2007 Annual Report

External links

• Best Western
• Best Western Premier
• Best Western Great Britain
• Best Western Australia