Phoenix, AZ - May 24, 2013 - The debut of the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Herald Square marks the first Best Western Premier branded hotel to open downtown in a major gateway city and illustrates the brand's development strategy for its BEST WESTERN PREMIER® branded hotels.

Located on West 36th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in the heart of Herald Square, the 17-story, 94-room, new build hotel was designed with a high-end boutique look and feel and upscale amenities. “When we decided to build in midtown Manhattan, we knew we wanted to build a high-end boutique hotel. Best Western was the only brand that offered the flexibility in design we were looking and didn’t require us to build a standard prototype,” said Jaz Patel, president of LeTap Group, the hotel’s development and management group.

Another factor in LeTap Group’s decision to develop the hotel under the Best Western brand was financial. “Having operated the Best Western Plaza Hotel on Long Island, we have been pleased with the brand-level support we receive. Opening in a market with high RevPar, Best Westerns’ flat membership fee, compared to other brands that require franchises to pay 8-10% of revenue, will make a huge difference to our bottom-line at the end of the year. It just made good business sense for us to develop the hotel with Best Western,” added Patel.

Growing the BEST WESTERN PREMIER brand to have a presence in key gateway cities is part of the brand’s development strategy. “When we started describing our hotels as BEST WESTERN, BEST WESTERN PLUS, and BEST WESTERN PREMIER, we knew we wanted our upscale Premier branded hotels to have a presence in major metropolitan cities. The Premier brand gives Best Western an opportunity to provide developers with an upscale product they can customize in these markets,” said Mark Williams, vice president of North American Development for Best Western. “Jaz and his team have designed and built a beautiful and unique hotel that will offer guests an upscale boutique hotel experience at a value price point. This new hotel exemplifies what the Best Western Premier brand is all about,” added Williams.

The company has four additional Best Western Premier branded hotels scheduled to open by the end of 2013 and eight more in the pipeline for 2014. Recently opened BEST WESTERN PREMIERS include the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Petion-Ville, in Haiti and the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Waterfront Hotel and Convention Center in Wisconsin.

For more information on development opportunities with Best Western International, please visit bestwesterndevelopers.com

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ABOUT BEST WESTERN INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Best Western International, Inc., headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., is a privately held hotel brand made up of more than 4,000* BEST WESTERN®, BEST WESTERN PLUS® and BEST WESTERN PREMIER® hotels in more than 100* countries and territories worldwide. Now celebrating 67 years of hospitality, Best Western welcomes hundreds of thousands of guests nightly. Best Western provides its hoteliers with global operational, sales, marketing and promotional support, and online and mobile booking capabilities. More than 15 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. The brand’s partnerships with AAA/CAA, race car driver Michael Waltrip, and Harley-Davidson® provide travelers with exciting ways to interact with the brand. In 2012, Best Western won a record number of awards, including AAA’s Hotel Partner of the Year, CAA’s Partner of the Year and Compuware’s Best of the Web Gold awards.

For more information or to make a reservation, please visit bestwestern.com.
*Numbers are approximate and may fluctuate