A new brand, GLo, was among last week’s announcements at Best Western’s annual convention. Described as a midscale brand for urban-suburban markets, GLo is Best Western’s seventh brand and will feature modern elements such as LED lighting, contemporary social spaces, efficient design, and pops of color.
HOTELS sat down with members of Best Western’s executive team, including CEO and President David Kong and Senior Vice President of Brand Management and Member Services Ron Pohl to discuss the new brand and other opportunities for development.
HOTELS: Why did Best Western create the new brand, GLo?
David Kong: There was a huge void in the marketplace among the boutique and lifestyle brands. There is nothing in the midscale segment. Also, if you look at the prototypes from the leading brands, they tend to look the same, which can be a bit boring. We are not taking a cookie-cutter approach with the brand. Instead, this is an unusual and very different product that what is out there today. People want something that is affordable, chic and exciting. I think we will get a lot of traction, possibly even faster than Vib.
H: Why do a completely separate brand, opposed to reconfiguring Vib for the secondary markets?
DK: Vib requires a much larger lobby and much higher foot traffic in urban locations. We want Vib to be known for that and we didn’t want to redo that concept. Whereas we want GLo to be known for its urban-suburban locations.
H: When will GLo open its first hotel?
DK: We just announced it at this convention so this is kind of like a soft launch to pique people’s interest. However, I have already seen a tremendous and overwhelming amount of interest.
H: Is there a target age group for GLo?
DK: It’s for today’s traveler. I don’t want to narrowly cast GLo or really any of Best Western’s products for a specific age group. Instead, I want to appeal to a broad spectrum. As a result, none of what we are doing is overdone. There are some boutique brands out there that push the envelope a little bit too much and the technology is overwhelming, which can exclude some guests.
H: Why was lighting selected to be such a key element of GLo?
DK: We want to construct a beacon that will grab the attention of people driving or walking by the property. Inside the hotel itself, we want every beacon to be a selfie moment for our guests and we want the beacon to stand for what that space is meant for.
GLo is being described as new construction. Do you foresee any new construction down the road?
DK: I don’t envision that we will have too many conversions. When you think about the elements that make GLo and even Vib work, it would be really hard to achieve without new construction. For example, GLo will have center-loaded guestroom bathrooms and no other hotel really has that. We are making the construction costs so efficient that it just makes sense to build a new property.
H: Since the launch of Vib in 2014, there are seven properties in the pipeline. Is this a slower development process than expected?
Ron Pohl: Not necessarily. Finding a site and securing it for Vib has probably been the biggest challenge. In addition to the seven signed deals, we have about 11 deals that we are working on right now. As they come through the process, I anticipate we will have about six signed deals by the end of the year. We are progressing well, but it takes awhile especially with a new product. We have had some instances where a city will question if the hotel would fit in with the rest of the architecture so we have to work through those types of challenges.
H: Dual-branding also seems to be growing in popularity in the industry. How does Best Western approach this trend?
RP: We are taking a pretty aggressive approach with that. The highest demand is with Best Western Plus and Executive Residency. We have taken a bit of a different approach than other brands too. We aren’t requiring the brands to be separate buildings or have separate lobbies. It’s actually a mixed-use facility where you will have extended stay rooms on the same floor as a standard guestroom. We just put perimeters on how many of each room that we want in a dual-branded property. There is also a benefit for the operator because there is only one front desk and all of the customers can use the same facilities. We believe it will work really well.