Best Western to Expand SureStay Brand to Australia and New Zealand

Best Western Australasia is looking to expand its new SureStay ‘white label’ economy hotel brand to Australia and New Zealand.

Head of Commercial Steve Richards says discussions are under way with a number of hotels and anticipates the first property will go live in early 2018 with others to follow.

“We estimate there are 2000 economy hotels across Australia and New Zealand and that 80% of them are unbranded independents,” said Richards. “These are the hoteliers who will benefit most by joining SureStay – it’s a new brand with great values that we think has enormous potential for increasing visibility, credibility and bookings for independent economy hotels.”

He said to carry the ‘SureStay Hotel by Best Western’ brand hotels must be rated minimum 3.5 stars on TripAdvisor, offer guests good quality facilities and service, a continental breakfast and free Wi-Fi.

SureStay branded hotels will have marketing support, access to Best Western’s preferred travel agent and corporate agreements, scale, and global distribution through numerous channels including Global Distribution Systems and Best Western’s website.

“We are also targeting the corporate market with SureStay, giving guests the opportunity to earn or redeem Best Western Rewards points, which is a real point of difference in the economy sector,” Richards said.

Launched last year, SureStay now has 33 properties in the United States, Sweden and Thailand with another 44 in the pipeline.

There are three brand tiers - SureStay Hotel by Best Western, SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western and SureStay Collection by Best Western.

At the beginning, only the entry-level SureStay Hotel by Best Western brand will open in Australia and New Zealand.

“We wanted to avoid any kind of confusion with our core brands, Best Western and Best Western Plus, where uniformly higher standards of facilities and service are required,” Richards said.

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