Best Western bucks hotel trend as rebranding targets giant rival

THE revamped Best Western chain has unveiled an ambitious target to overtake market giant IHG as the UK's top mid-market hotel group following a recent surge in bookings.

A two-year shake-out has seen the total number of Best Western branded hostelries drop from 320 to 285 as the group weeded out poorer quality establishments.

It followed a 500,000 "Hotels with Personality" advertising campaign launched three weeks ago, emphasising the distinctiveness of the independently owned chain across the Best Western portfolio.

Despite continuing difficulties facing the hospitality and tourism sector, the re-branding programme is said to be having a positive impact on business.

During the first fortnight of the advertising campaign, telephone reservations for Best Western rose 300 per cent on the same period a year earlier.

"Early signs are that it has been a very, very successful start to the campaign," said Russell Imrie, president of Interchange & Consort Hotels.

Interchange & Consort operates the Best Western brand in Great Britain. Imrie is also managing director of Queensferry Hotels, which owns the Best Western Bruntsfield in Edinburgh and Best Western Keavil House in Dunfermline.

The re-branding programme is part of a global overhaul at Best Western, the US-headquartered chain comprised entirely of independently-owned franchisees. The group has about 4,000 hotels in nearly 80 countries.

Imrie said that apart from bucking the current trading difficulties plaguing the industry, Best Western also aimed to build up its portfolio in the UK. The hope is that mid-sized operators in desirable destinations will see the value in joining a Best Western group offering consistently high quality.

"There was a variability of quality in the past," Imrie said. "We have recognised that, and we have addressed that.

"There was a conscious decision to have a fewer number of hotels, but of a greater quality. We feel that is the best base to grow from."

Imrie, who began working in the industry in the 1980s, said hoteliers were facing the most challenging trading environment that he could recall.

The lingering impact of the recession is continuing to depress corporate and government spending, he said, leaving hoteliers dependent upon price-conscious leisure travellers.

"The price expectations of customers can be up to 25 per cent below what they would have expected to pay in early 2009 or late 2008," he said.

In Scotland, there is the additional burden of the recent reassessment of business rates, which has led to what Imrie described as "scandalous" increases to some hoteliers' costs.

This and other issues of red tape are set to come under fire when the recently formed Leadership Group for tourism formalises its recommendations for bolstering the Scottish industry's prospects and economic impact.

Imrie, one of about 20 working members of the Leadership Group, said those proposals should be ready within the next six to eight weeks.

The group, chaired by Crieff Hydro's Stephen Leckie, will then begin pressing for what are expected to be "fundamental changes" to the industry.

"Tourism in Scotland does have a bright future, but we are not meeting up to our potential," Imrie said.