Best Western Hotels & Resorts

BANGKOK (Oct 1): Best Western Hotels & Resorts has launched its seventh hotel brand -- GLō, to cater to the need of savvy travellers who want a hip and boutique-style experience.

According to David Kong, president and CEO Best Western Hotels & Resorts, the company has looked into the segmentation of boutique hotels and realised that there are needs for boutique products in the broad midscale segment, and GLō has the potential to fill the market space.

“Developers are expressing interest in building a boutique brand to cater to the demand for [something] which is fresh, chic and contemporary. We see tremendous opportunity for GLō to change the development landscape in the midscale segment,” he said in a press statement. There was no mention of the location of the first GLō hotel.

GLō is the latest addition to Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ family brands. Other brands includ Best Western Premier, BW Premier Collection, Best Western Plus, Best Western Plus Executive Residency, Vīb and Best Western.

Notably, Vīb and GLō are the two brands in the upper-midscale segment.

“With strong demand for a midscale boutique brand, coupled with the lower barrier to entry costs of secondary and suburban markets, we expect [the] GLō development to ramp up very quickly,” added Ron Pohl, senior vice-president of brand management.

As the name implies, GLō’s architecture and design have elements that speak to the name – with the use of LED lighting – making it an unmistakeable beacon, especially at night. With an innovative design strategy, GLō is cost effective to build. For example, the floor plan is designed so that the adjacent guest room baths are centre-loaded, saving about 40 to 50 sq ft in construction costs.

The 69-year-old Best Western Hotels & Resorts, which is headquartered in Phoenix, the US, has a global network of more than 4,100 hotels in more than 100 countries. Its Asia operation in Bangkok was started in 2001, and now covers 15 countries in the region, with more than 100 hotels.

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