Best Western Plugs Luxury Gap by Buying WorldHotels
Photo Credit: Best Western CEO David Kong at the chain’s convention in 2017. Best Western / Best Western Hotels & Resorts
Skift Take
Is this the beginning of a new cycle of global hotel chains buying independent hotel groups? As competition intensifies for soft brands, more of such consolidations should not surprise anyone.
WorldHotels has been acquired again, this time by Best Western Hotels & Resorts, exactly two years after it was bought by Associated Luxury Hotels.
The price was undisclosed.
Global hotel chains, including Best Western, have been entering the turf of independent hotel groups by launching a slew of soft brands, but this is the first time a hotel group has bought over one of them fully. Starwood Hotels & Resorts acquired a nearly 50 percent stake in Design Hotels in 2011.
The acquisition, announced Monday, will give Best Western a handle on the upper upscale and luxury segments which it never had. With roots in mid scale, Best Western started to inch up by launching soft brands such as the BW Premier Collection in 2015 targeting upscale and upper upscale independent h
