Best Western Hotels & Resorts has launched a service for
independent hotels called SureStay.
Best Western will provide hotels with distribution services,
desktop and mobile websites, and sales coaching, while giving hotel owners
access to Best Western’s OTA commission rates.
Hotels won’t have to meet Best Western’s brand standards, but
will be required to maintain a TripAdvisor review score of at least 3.5 points out
of a possible 5.
The SureStay Hotel and its SureStay Plus and SureStay
Signature variants will operate in the economy, lower midscale and midscale
sectors, Best Western said.
Best Western will waive five years of royalty fees to the
first 100 hotels to join SureStay, and estimates that 150 hotels will join the
new group within three years.
Best Western estimates that approximately 12,000 of the
29,000 economy and midscale hotels in the U.S. are unbranded.