Best Western celebrates its ‘outstanding growth'

Best Western chief executive Nigel Embry was in buoyant mood last week as he told the annual UK conference that room nights, room revenue and occupancy figures had all leapt in the past year.

Room nights for 1995 were up by 25% compared with the previous year, and figures for January and February of this year showed a year-on-year rise of 50%, he said.

Average room occupancy of members stood at 62% last year, up two percentage points on 1994 and well above the English Tourist Board (ETB) national average figure of 53%.

"We have the best results year on year, year in year out, of any consortium, and the past three years in particular have shown outstanding growth," Mr Embry told the audience of 200 hotel proprietors.

The challenge now was for Best Western to concentrate on consolidation in a "competitive and unforgiving" marketplace, in which independents were increasingly vulnerable, he said.

The consortium would have to fine-tune its operational structure, improve management efficiency, and give staff more flexibility and authority, said Mr Embry.

He also called on members to track their levels of business more accurately, and target marketing and sales spend more effectively.

Speaking to Caterer after the conference, Mr Embry said he would like to grow the consortium this year from 201 to 220 members. He was particularly keen to see new members in city centre locations such as London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.

Standards of the hotels in the consortium were being consistently raised, he added. Over the past year, new minimum standards were introduced for UK members, with six being axed from Best Western for failing to meet these standards.

"Over the next 12 to 18 months we are also introducing a new rating and quality inspection scheme to cover all 3,500 member hotels worldwide, which will raise standards further," he added.