Interview: Best Western CEO on Guests’ Ever-Rising Expectations

Editor’s Note: Skift is running a series of interviews with hospitality CEOs talking about the Future of the Guest Experience and the evolving expectations and demands of hotel guests. Check out all the interviews as they come out here. This continues our series of CEO interviews, the previous series was on the Future of Booking, with online travel CEOs. Many Americans think of Best Western as a standard road trip stopover without realizing its position as one of the largest hotel corporations in the world, or its emphasis on localization and innovation. Best Western International operates about 4,000 hotels, half of which are located in North America. The corporation began differentiating its properties in 2002 with the launch of the more upscale brand Best Western Premier. It then expanded to a three-tiered system in 2011 and most recently entered the lifestyle brand arms race with its new tech-centric concept Vb. All Best Western properties are individually owned