Total additions for 2001 at 252 properties
PHOENIX, Jan. 28, 2001- Best Western International, the World's Largest
Hotel Chain(tm), added 24 new hotels in North America and 34 new international
hotels to the brand in the fourth fiscal quarter ended Nov. 30. The
58 hotels bring the year-end total to 252 opened under the Best Western
flag.
Consistent with 2001 goals, the company's North American development
team continued to add hotels in key markets where the brand was underrepresented.
In the fourth quarter, those additions included: San Jose, Calif.; Anaheim,
Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Winston-Salem, NC; Hilton Head, SC and Nashville,
Tenn.
| Overall for the year, Best Western signed 111 new hotels throughout
North America. Twenty-six of those hotels opened in Texas, 10 in
California, seven in Virginia, five in Florida and four in Colorado.
In Canada, 11 new hotels joined the membership.
In addition to the continued success in adding new hotels, 98.9 percent
of all North American Best Western members renewed their affiliation with
the brand. At year's end, 2,289 hotels were flying the Best Western
flag in North America.
"Despite the prevailing economic uncertainty, our development team did
a phenomenal job attracting new hotels," said Mark Williams, vice president
of North American Development. "Even prior to Sept. 11, our entire
industry was facing lower occupancy and many hotel owners scrapped their
more aggressive development plans."
"Best Western continues to be a very attractive brand for hotel developers
because we maintain lower affiliation costs and offer equivalent, if not
superior services to that of our franchised competition," Williams added.
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Benefits of Best Western Membership
Best Western's Travelers' Guides
and Road Atlases, which contain color photos, maps, and information
on all our hotels. More than 1.5 million guides are distributed annually.
Bestwestern.com showcases
all 4000-plus hotels with their own property pages featuring marketing,
amenity and local attraction information along with color photos, maps
and online booking functionality. Our Web site logged more than 182 million
hits in 2000, resulting in $97 million in gross room night revenue.
Our Worldwide Reservations system
services more than 50 million guests every year with offices in the United
States, Italy, Ireland, and Australia. In 2000, our reservations centers
generated $563 million in sales and 6.6 million room nights.
Representation and listings
in all major global distribution systems, including Amadeus,
Sabre, Galileo, and Worldspan resulted in $461 million in sales in 2000.
The Best Requests program
assures guests that they will receive the same key amenities and services
at any Best Western in the world (program effective October, 2001 in US
and Canada; January, 2002 outside
of US and Canada).
Gold Crown Club International
is our highly popular global frequent traveler's program currently boasting
more than 3 million members worldwide and growing. |
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International expansion of the Best Western brand continued to flourish
in Asia and Europe, according to Suzi MacDonald, vice president of International
Operations.
"Thanks to the efforts of our international development team in Asia
and Europe, key first-time ventures this year included the Best Western
Rosedale on the Park in Hong Kong, the Best Western New Seoul Hotel in
Seoul, South
Korea and the Best Western Hotel M in Belgrade, Yugoslavia," said MacDonald.
During the 2001 fiscal year, 141 international hotels were brought into
the system. France led the way with 20 new hotels, Great Britain
secured 16 hotels, Australia added 13 new hotels and Germany and Italy
both added 11
apiece.
During the fourth quarter, five hotels were flagged as Best Westerns
in Italy, where the company is the most represented hotel brand in the
country. Additionally, four new hotels were added in Australia.
The overall number of properties and rooms is down from last year, however,
that is a result of the companies increased quality initiatives.
Globally, 91 hotels were removed from the system in 2001 as a result of
not meeting
enhanced quality assurance requirements.
 Best
Western International is the world's largest hotel chain. As of its fourth
fiscal quarter ending Nov. 30, the company had 4,053 hotels in 80 countries
and territories. Best Western is a membership association of independently
owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational
support to its members.
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