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TravelDailyNews: What is your policy to strengthen your company worldwide?
Raymond Johnston: Best Western International is already the largest hotel chain in the world. We have developed a unique model. Our model is based on the membership. We are the largest hospitality membership in the world. Because of the membership we managed to sustain a stability that allowed us to expand in many countries in the world. We take money from the membership and then we invest that money to our services. We started with affiliate members in the US and we expanded that model to many regions in the world. Now, we have many affiliate members globally, who are non – profit organizations and have their members too. So with that model it was very easy to enter in the international arena. It a very good model and we will stick to it in the future.
TDN: What are the main obstacles – benefits in expanding your brand?
R.J.: In Best Western you own the brand, you are a part of it as a member you have your votes in the affiliate members council. So there is really the chance for someone to have the ownership on the brand. When it is a franchise you don’t have the ownership of that brand. You are running the brand but after ten or five years of developing there is a chance to lose it and you are back in the start. With Best Western’s model this will never happen. Secondly, we have the minimum standards but we don’t stop there. If someone wants to go beyond that you can do that. But if you have a franchise this is what you are and you can’t go over than that. So it is not that you have a brand, you also have the ability to market, to run your hotel they way you want to run it. One problem is that we are so diversified that the consumer doesn’t know who you are and what you are. That depends how you look at it. There are no surprises to Best Western. You always know what your are going to get wherever your destination is. That worked for a long period of time. On the other hand we are much diversified and that might have caused confusion to the consumer. But that has been changed because of the power of the internet. The internet has been Best Western best friend as everyone can go there and find whatever he/she wants and many do their reservations through internet.
TDN: Which destinations have more dynamic potentials?
R.J.: We have expanded in all over the world so we can’t really say that some destinations are more of interest to us. Now, we are focusing on quality over quantity. Our motivation is the enhancement of the brand and the quality image of the brand. So if we take China for example we will see that our growth is primarily on the properties. 85% of our investments will be in Thailand and Taiwan with five stars hotel properties on the beach and in the cities. We are going into an emerging market and we are doing this because it is a slow process and we are wanted to find to develop in the property itself.
TDN: How did the terrorists’ attacks affect your brand?
R.J.: It is fact that those attacks had an effect on the entire industry and for our company also. Maybe, not as much as the largest hotels, CVBs because people were afraid to fly. However, we did see effect in some markets, where the consumer preferred ground transportation. But this affected the largest tourist attractions areas and hotels and not the smallest ones. But we recovered fast.
TDN: How did your company expand the previous decade and where are you going to invest in the next decade?
R.J.: We do have plans but as we don’t own the properties we will invest in the technology, in the marketing and in sales. We are going to put money in Beijing just for the infrastructure because we know that we are going to take money back. We are now looking partners for emerging markets like India in a governmental level. We are in the process for a master plan in India in order to have an expanded network. In China we did this by ourselves with our own personnel and the outcome had been very positive.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
