Best Western's international expansion strategy and competitive positioning

¶ … Western Hotels

Best Western has a prominent international presence with hotels in over 90 countries worldwide. The largest percentage of these hotels (2194) is in North America followed by Europe with 1,424 hotels then, Asia with over 300 then South America with slightly over 116 (Best Western International, 2012).

Competitive analysis

The top Best Western competitors are Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn. Holiday Inn has a 90.9% total Brand Awareness followed by Best Western at 89% then followed by Comfort Inn at 88.7% in addition, Best Western's total advertising awareness in 2010 was 18% followed by Holiday Inn Express at 16.8% and then Holiday Inn at 16.7% (Best Western International, 2012)

The Disadvantages of Franchising

The preparation of legal documents such as agreements, Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars (UFOCs) and related documents, and filing them is costly.

The state laws regulate the situations in which a franchisor may wish to terminate the contract.

Under this arrangement, there are possibilities of numerous business relationship issues as Franchisees view themselves as partners.

The Advantages of Franchising

Franchisee will develop an attitude of a business owner. Therefore the franchisee is able to time and resources to growing the business.

Strong brand recognition is an advantage in franchising. This is important to the retail success of each establishment.

Franchises pay money to a national fund that support retail marketing, advertisements, promotions and public relations.

Basic Considerations for Selecting the Franchise Brand

Best Western offers top of the line offering. The competitors in the market are;

Premier hotels

Best Western Prototype

Best Western

Comfort Inn & Suite

Country Inn & Suites

Hampton Inn & Suite

Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn Express

La Quinta Inn & Suit

Ramada

Technological changes

Some ideas that the hotel can use to maintain their brand image abroad include, adopting the global marketing strategy. The hotel should consider the whole world as one market that demands different marketing campaigns for different regions. Here decisions are made on a domestic basis to suit the culture and needs of the local community.