"Five percent of our total bookings were made via the Internet in 1999," says Mary Beth Knight, managing director of Intermediary Marketing for Best Western. "We hope to see continued growth in this area and are looking to increase our online bookings to 10 percent of our total for 2000.   The customer friendly Web site also increased overall business for Best Western, with a 218 percent year-over-year increase in gross room nights booked and a 205 percent increase in gross reservations.

In addition to the increased booking percentages, Best Western's Web site received important accolades from several prominent publications. ZD Net ranked Best Western's site tops in speed and accessibility on January 6, 2000. They cited the consistent page structure and the ability to navigate to a particular hotel location by either search engine or clicking on a map location as positives. Also, USA Today ranked the site as one of the top sites in mid-market travel for its speed, ease of navigation and useful information.

Knight says ease of accessibility, online travel planning and the ability to obtain frequent traveler point updates online are just some of the benefits found on www.bestwestern.com. As an additional highlight, guests will soon be able to redeem frequent travelers points on the site.

Best Western International is the world's largest hotel chain with more than 4,000 hotels in 84 countries and territories. It is a membership organization of independently owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational support to its member hotels.