Best Western Australasia has ended 2014 with unprecedented success in RevPAR performance and an overall 10% increase in bookings delivered to its member hotels in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
The company’s revenue was strongly supported by a record 27% rise in Best Western Rewards business. With over 23 million loyalty members worldwide, Best Western Rewards was recently named one of the top three hotel rewards programs by U.S. News and World Report in 2014.
Best Western Australasia’s Chief Executive, Rob Anderson, said he was pleased to report the total business delivered to members in the past six years has doubled and new global initiatives are now underway.
Anderson said the brand is looking to deliver even stronger support to member hotels and has pooled global budgets to build a dynamic digital platform.
“The way people book hotels has changed. Best Western International is developing a new digital platform to power our internet and mobile strategies to do things faster and better. This will vastly improve our marketing, content management and time to market,” he said.
Also starting this month (January 2015) is the Best Western Design Excellence Program. The program focuses on creating great property design to produce the best return on investment for member hotels.
“This program was launched in the United States a few years ago and has proven to be one of the most successful and popular initiatives with members in Best Western’s 65-year history,” Anderson said.
“Over the next five years, each hotel will be visited by a design specialist who will formulate a customised property improvement plan.”
New deals were signed in 2014, including a new build of 80 apartment-style rooms on the Sunshine Coast and the signing of The Haven Inn hotel in Sydney’s Inner Western suburb of Glebe.
“The quality of our hotels continues to be our greatest strength and something we are all extremely proud of. Last year we saw over 30% of our hotels in Australasia receive a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. Our Net Promoter Score, which we regard as the benchmark in customer satisfaction research, has also doubled in the last six years,” he said.
In Asia, the brand’s footprint in Indonesia continues to rapidly expand with Best Western International looking to open at least six hotels in 2015, adding to 11 hotels already operating in the country.
“Overall, Asia has experienced spectacular growth for the brand and is a region of focus for Best Western in 2015,” Anderson said.