Best Western International restructures its international operations adding regional offices

BANGKOK - Best Western International, the world’s largest hotel chain, is expanding its regional operations offices in Thailand & Turkey.

The company, which operates more than 4,000 hotels worldwide, established its regional head office for Asia in Bangkok in 2001.

Since then, the rapid expansion of Best Western’s regional portfolio required the office to expand its coverage to oversee an Asian portfolio that stretched from the Middle East to Japan.

Under the company’s new operational and development support strategy, Best Western’s expanding collection of hotels in the Middle East will now be overseen by the company’s regional office in Turkey.

The brand already has strategic alliances with partners in the key markets of China, India and South Korea and is now looking to establish additional offices to oversee its development in other markets in Asia.

The Bangkok office will continue to supervise the company’s rapid growth in Thailand and neighboring ASEAN countries, putting more focus on delivering more support for its member hotels.

“Our success throughout the world has been based on strategic alliances or developing offices in key countries,” said Ron Pohl, the company's Senior Vice President of International Operations.

“The enhancements we have made to our international operations in Asia will enable us to cater to the specific needs of this diverse and dynamic region, with professional local teams offering an enhanced range of tailored services.”

Mr. Pohl added that while the Bangkok office will have a “smaller footprint” in terms of geographical coverage, staffing levels will remain the same or even be increased, as the office provides additional sales and marketing support for its hotels.

A new Managing Director for the Bangkok regional office is expected to be announced in March, he added.

Best Western International currently has a collection of almost 180 hotels either operating or in the pipeline across Asia, plus a further 15 in the Middle East. And it has considerable expansion plans, including multiple new hotels in Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Best Western International will also unveil three new exciting brands for the Asian market at a press conference on March 18, 2015. These will include new luxury, lifestyle and extended-stay concepts.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia