Best Western Hotels & Resorts today announced its eleventh brand – and newest soft brand – BW Signature Collection by Best Western. With the arrival of this new product, Best Western now offers soft brand options to hotel owners in most chain scale segments – upper economy and midscale (SureStay CollectionSM by Best Western), upper midscale (BW Signature Collection by Best Western) and upscale and upper upscale (BW Premier Collection®).
“An increasing number of hotels in North America and overseas are going independent because they want flexibility and freedom from brand requirements, but they are also looking for an alternate source of business, a loyalty program and a robust reservation system,” said David Kong, President and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.
“No one is offering a soft brand in the upper midscale segment right now, so by diversifying our offerings in the space, it is clearly an opportunity for us to capture market share and achieve scale,” Kong said. “At the same time, we are happy to provide a home, and serve as a resource, to high quality independent hoteliers who have great potential to succeed. We believe this is a win-win.”
The first two hotels to join BW Signature Collection by Best Western are Killington Mountain Lodge in Killington, Vermont and Brooklyn Way Hotel in Brooklyn, New York. Hotels joining this new brand will be on boarded in a rapid ramp-up, with near immediate access to Best Western’s robust revenue management systems, tradeshow and sales support, marketing programs, award-winning BWR® loyalty program, global reservation system and more.
“Best Western is a trail-blazer in the soft brand space. Since launching our BW Premier Collection in 2015, and last year, SureStay Collection, we’ve seen incredible results, with continued opportunity to grow,” said Ron Pohl, Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of Best Western Hotels & Resorts. “We anticipate a successful launch of BW Signature Collection by Best Western and look forward to welcoming many more independent hoteliers to our family in the near future.”
While targeting rapid growth for its most recent soft brand, Best Western will be selective and focus on quality over quantity. To qualify, properties must maintain a TripAdvisor® score of at least 4.0 and meet other standards, as well. Best Western anticipates 100 hotels to be in the BW Signature Collection by Best Western pipeline by 2020.
