“We are honored to have BWR recognized as a top loyalty program by U.S. News for the fifth consecutive year,” said Dorothy Dowling, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Best Western Hotels & Resorts.
Phoenix, Arizona (PRWEB) August 09, 2017
Best Western Hotels & Resorts today announced that its loyalty program – Best Western Rewards® (BWR®) – has been ranked one of the top five hotel loyalty programs by U.S. News & World Report’s 2017-2018 Best Hotel Rewards Programs. For the fifth consecutive year, BWR has received this coveted recognition for the tremendous value it brings to the program’s members.
To identify the top hotel rewards programs, U.S. News used a methodology that considers five components: ease of earning a free night, geographic coverage, number of hotels, property diversity and additional benefits. In total, 17 of the most prominent hotel loyalty programs were evaluated.
“We are honored to have BWR recognized as a top loyalty program by U.S. News for the fifth consecutive year,” said Dorothy Dowling, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Best Western Hotels & Resorts. “Best Western takes tremendous pride in offering one of the richest rewards programs in the industry, and this award reflects the exceptional value and benefits we are committed to providing our BWR members. We look forward to continuing to blaze the trail on loyalty in the hospitality space, with some fun and unique surprises planned for our BWR members in the coming months.”
Guest loyalty remains a major focus in the travel sector and a top priority for Best Western. Listening to the voice of its customers, Best Western launched a complete revamp of the BWR program earlier this year to deliver easily redeemable rewards, a new digital membership card for ease and convenience, and unrivalled exceptional discounts, perks and promotions.
Coupled with this effort, Best Western Hotels & Resorts also recently partnered with U.S. News’ Marketing & Business Intelligence Teams to launch a co-branded hotel loyalty program study designed to gather insight into how today’s travelers make their loyalty program decisions. The results, acquired from more than 1,000 respondents, found that the expiration of points, ease of point redemption, guaranteed room availability and brand trust are important factors shaping the current hotel loyalty landscape. Respondents indicated that Best Western performed exceptionally well in a number of critical areas.
In addition, the co-branded study indicated that the ability to earn points that never expire is a key benefit of loyalty programs, with one-third of respondents stating that expiring points is their biggest pet peeve. Best Western is the only program surveyed that offers points that never expire. Of the respondents who were members of several loyalty programs, 74% found it easier to redeem BWR points compared to 68% for Marriott Rewards® and 67% for Hilton Honors®.
“One of the goals for the co-branded study was to gain insight into how loyalty program members view their experiences and identify areas where these programs can become easier to use for travelers,” said Alexandra Kalaf, Vice President of Marketing for U.S. News & World Report. “The results confirmed that the top factors for survey respondents fall in line with Best Western’s longstanding member benefits and its revamped program perks and promotions.”
BWR has emerged as an award-winning powerhouse in recent years, and this fifth consecutive recognition by U.S. News & World Report is a welcomed addition to the brand’s award winning track record. When compared with competing loyalty programs, BWR has earned industry recognition that reflects the program’s quality and value, including accolades from Loyalty 360 and WalletHub.
For more information on BWR, please visit BestWesternRewards.com; and for the full survey results, visit USNews.com.
About Best Western® Hotels & Resorts:
Best Western Hotels & Resorts headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is a privately held hotel brand with a global network of 4,100* hotels in more than 100* countries and territories worldwide. Best Western offers 10 hotel brands to suit the needs of developers and guests in every market: Best Western®, Best Western Plus®, Best Western Premier®, Vīb®, GLō®, Executive Residency by Best Western®, and BW Premier Collection®; as well as its recently launched franchise offerings: SureStay®, SureStay Plus® and SureStay Signature Collection®. Now celebrating more than 70 years of hospitality, Best Western provides its hoteliers with global operational, sales and marketing support, and award-winning online and mobile booking capabilities. Best Western continues to set industry records regarding awards and accolades, including 64 percent of the brand’s North American hotels earning a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award in 2017, Business Travel News® ranking Best Western Plus and Best Western in the top three upper-mid-price and mid-price hotel brands for three years in a row, and Best Western receiving seven consecutive Dynatrace® Best of the Web awards for its leading hotel website. Best Western has also won eight consecutive AAA®/CAA® Lodging Partner of the Year awards, recognizing the brand’s commitment to providing exceptional service and great value to AAA’s 56 million members in the U.S. and Canada. Over 30 million travelers are members of the brand’s award-winning loyalty program Best Western Rewards®, one of the few programs in which members earn points that never expire and can be redeemed at any Best Western hotel worldwide. Best Western’s partnerships with AAA/CAA and Harley-Davidson® provide travelers with exciting ways to interact with the brand. Through its partnership with Google® Street View, Best Western is the first major company of its size and scale to launch a virtual reality experience for customers, setting a new industry standard and reinventing how guests view hotels.
*Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.
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