Best Western has classified about 25% of properties within the 4,000+ hotel chain as Best Western Plus and Best Western Premier and will begin marketing the new designations to consumers in January 2011.
Best Western Premier hotels feature amenities like concierge or turn-down service, oversize fitness rooms, 42-inch flat screen TVs with HD channels, and on-site restaurant.
Best Western used AAA classifications for designating upper tier properties with 3-diamond rating needed for Best Western Plus and three or four diamond for Best Western Premier.
The properties currently designated Best Western Premier are overwhelmingly outside the United States with only two hotels – BW Premier Eden Resort and Suites in Lancaster, PA and BW Premier Crown Chase Inn & Suites in Denton, TX in the U.S.Â
Compare that to 30 BW Premier properties in Germany alone.
Best Western is the U.S. based hotel chain with more international hotel properties than any other chain including Marriott, Hilton, and InterContinental Hotels Group. French-based Accor is the only other hotel chain with more international hotels than Best Western.
The articles cited below indicate about 700 to 800+ hotels will be designated Best Western Plus.
Best Western Rewards has a very confusing reward night table that is even more difficult than HHonors to determine the hotels in the different categories from 8,000 to 36,000 points. I assume the new designations of BW Plus and BW Premier will create a shift in hotel reward category placement, but I don’t think I can tabulate the data easily enough to track the changes.
Sources:
Hotel Interactive – The New Best Westerns – By separating its properties into three tiers, the brand hopes to reach new customers. (October 25, 2010)
Barbara De Lollis – Hotel Check-in,  USA Today – Best Western to call its higher-end hotels ‘Premier’ and Plus’ (April 20, 2010)
Best Western Premier and Plus Press Release (April 20, 2010)
2 Comments
Comments are closed.