Key facts about Best Western Great Britain

Company Background
Best Western Great Britain is part of Best Western International, the world's largest hotel chain. The organisation was founded in the United States in 1946, started spreading internationally in 1962, and is now represented in 80 countries around the world. Members of Interchange Hotels Great Britain elected to join Best Western in 1967 and following its merger with Consort Hotels in 1999, became the largest group of independent hotels in the UK.

Today, we have over 270 individual hotels in the UK, and over 4,000 hotels in 80 countries worldwide. Each one is independently owned and managed, while being committed to our common standards of quality, service and value. The UK hotels combine to represent a significant business with an aggregate value of nearly £3/4 billion in annual sales and over 18,500 employees.

Best Western is a highly distinctive brand in the industry. Hotels range from old coaching inns and former castles to contemporary boutique hotels in the capital.

Hotel Profile
The member hotels in Great Britain have nearly 15,500 bedrooms between them, making Best Western the sixth largest hotel company by number of rooms in the UK (source: BHA Trends and Developments Report 2008).

Over 90% of the hotels are in the mid-market 3-star sector, and the balance are in the 4-star market.

The average length of membership of the Best Western group is nearly 13 years with many member hotels far exceeding this. The Best Western Swan Hotel in Wells, which became a Best Western hotel in August 1972, is the longest serving member.

Corporate Social Responsibility
We believe that as the largest independently owned and managed hotel consortium in Great Britain, it is our duty as individuals and as a group to show our commitment to our future environment with positive actions, and not merely with lip service. Best Western’s hotels are actively involved in CSR. In addition to operating a wide range of energy saving and recycling initiatives, we also work closely with the Green Tourism Business Scheme to enable our hotels to gain accreditation for their CSR activities. Currently, nearly 80 of our hotels have either achieved accreditation or are awaiting assessment.

Our members pride themselves in supporting their local communities whether that is buying from local suppliers or helping and supporting local charities and groups. As an organisation, we launched the Best Western Beacon Charitable Trust in 2008 to raise money for the good causes our members want to support locally.

Membership Benefits
While each of our member hotels retains their unique personality and charm, they also benefit from their membership of Best Western in a whole variety of ways:

• Keep full independence, while being part of an international affiliation
• Support in maintaining high standards by undergoing two quality assessments each year
• Represented by the Best Western Great Britain central reservations service, open seven days a week and linked to our international reservations centres
• Preferred access to leading corporate booking agents
• Brand recognition, being part of a national and international brand
• Favoured by over 50,000 Best Western Rewards members in the UK and over 1,000,000 members who are collecting points worldwide
• Best Western is a non-profit making organisation. All income is re-invested for members
• Representation on GDS and web systems, with online booking facilities
• Regular media exposure through brochures, newspapers etc
• Full central office support across all major market segments
• Free membership to Beacon Purchasing

Senior Team
David Clarke, Chief Executive, Best Western Hotels
David is a ‘career hotelier’ in private and company owned hotels Whilst General Manager of the 5 star Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh he co-founded the marketing consortium, Connoisseur Scotland, with Gleneagles and Turnberry Hotels. He was the first Chairman of Springboard Scotland, which promotes careers in hospitality, is a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and was made a Master Innholder in 1995.

He sits on a number of Key Best Western International forums and in the UK is on the BHA Council and chairs the BHA Sustainability Committee. He is trustee of the Best Western Beacon Charitable Trust.

Keith Pope, Director of Membership Services, Best Western Hotels
Keith holds the position of Director of Membership Services. He is a qualified Best Western QA Assessor and also represents the company on BWI committees for Premier and Brand Management.

From 1983 to 1988, Keith was Chief Executive of Consort Hotels, during which time the company won the Queen’s Award for Industry. Keith then held senior management positions with Croft Hotels, Greenfield Holdings, Rainbow and Taz Hotels before returning to Consort in 1997.

Keith has over 40 years’ experience in the industry, being involved in various roles with Trust House Forte, Ryans Tourist Group and Managing Director of the Gresham Hotel.

Contact details
For further information or to arrange an interview with a member of the senior Best Western team, please contact:

For trade press enquiries:
Andrew Merrett, AMCOMM Communications
Tel: 020 8133 0473
Mob: 07771 737995
Email: andrewm@amcomm.co.uk

For consumer press enquiries:
Emma Trimble, Brazen PR
Tel: 0161 923 4994
Mob: 07809 554266
Email: bestwestern@brazenpr.com

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