Yesterday, Best Western Hotels & Resorts announced the launch of two new boutique brands, Sadie Hotel and Aiden Hotel. These new concepts represent the 12th and 13th brands in Best Western’s portfolio.
Sadie and Aiden are both conversion brands, with Sadie operating in the upscale segments and Aiden in the upper-midscale segment. They were conceived to give developers an opportunity to reposition existing properties to improve performance and enhance their value, while taking advantage of Best Western’s systems, support, and scale.
To yield the best possible returns on investment, Best Western decided that Sadie’s and Aiden’s designs would be completely flexible, allowing hoteliers to incorporate local style into their properties. “We want to make every hotel different… We want to work with the owners to make [their] vision of what the hotel should look like. So every hotel will be customized in term of design. We want the hotel to capitalize on the local flair that’s out there,” said David Kong, president and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.
“We have so much flexibility in the design,” added Amy Hulbert, Best Western’s VP of boutique and upscale brands. “We’re still going to have requirements around the quality of the sheets, the number of pillows on the bed, as well as the offerings of the restaurants, but want to make sure that there’s enough flexibility in the design that it stays fun. We want it to be fun for the developers.”
All Sadie and Aiden hotels will have one design element in common—a multi-functional public area with either a café or bar, lots of seating, and mobile check-in.
Kong also noted that Best Western is focused on ensuring that Sadie and Aiden properties have an accelerated ramp-up period. “We have a team of people that has helped a lot of hotels ramp up and we can leverage [its] expertise to help these hotels ramp up quickly by integrating them with our revenue engines from the get-go, so they don’t waste any time,” he said.
Best Western is also dedicated to ensuring the brands make a splash on social media. “Best Western has the second highest social engagement scores in the industry, so we will take our know-how and all the influencers that we work with to create customized templates and play books for these hotels to ramp up their social media buzz,” Kong described.
Though the brands were officially announced less than 24 hours ago, Hulbert said that Best Western already has some prospective developers, though she can’t quite say how many. “Brands always come from somewhere, and often they come from guests asking for something that isn’t out there yet. We think these brands will meet a need in the industry, and we are super excited.”
