Best Western's Parent Renames Itself WorldHotels as Growth Flatlines

BWH Hotels, the parent of Best Western, will rename itself WorldHotels — taking the name of a roughly 250-property brand it bought in 2019 — while growth across the group has been flat since that year, with 3,920 operating hotels now versus more than 3,900 in 2019.

The company announced the change to hotel owners Tuesday at its annual convention in Phoenix. All 18 brands keep their names. A Best Western remains a Best Western. The rebrand applies mainly to the parent company, but the group's two loyalty programs — Best Western Rewards and WorldHotels Rewards — will merge under the WorldHotels name on January 5.

CEO Larry Cuculic framed the move as a race to catch up with what the company has already become. The group has grown from one brand in 2010 to 18 spanning luxury, boutique, upscale, extended-stay, and economy segments.

"We've evolved faster than public awareness," Cuculic said in an interview. "Travelers only know us as a portion of our portfolio."

He cited a figure with direct revenue implications: roughly 96 million travelers who would consider the group's hotels do not know what Best Western stands for today. He also pointed to industry precedent, noting the practice of using an upscale brand as the master brand and citing IHG's 2003 renaming as an example.

What changes for members and owners?

The merged loyalty program drops from five tiers to three. Chief Marketing Officer Joelle Park said there is no devaluing of points, and that status matching, member rates, and earned points carry over.

That promise carries a caveat. Tier reductions in loyalty programs have historically squeezed benefits at the edges, and the company has not detailed how every existing benefit maps onto the three-tier structure.

The ownership question is sharper. BWH operates as a one-hotel, one-vote cooperative, and three-quarters of its hotels carry the Best Western name in some form. Members did not get a vote on the change. In 2019, North American owners voted down a board proposal to convert the group into a for-profit corporation — a signal that owner sentiment does not always follow management's direction.

Cuculic's toughest audience, in other words, may be his own membership rather than travelers.

Who pays for the rebrand?

The company said it will fund the changeover itself, along with a January global marketing campaign, from its own balance sheet. There will be no increased fees, dues, or assessments for owners, according to Cuculic.

That cost structure matters for a cooperative. In a franchised or corporate chain, rebrand costs typically flow to franchisees through marketing funds or property improvement plans. Here, the parent has pledged to absorb the expense — a claim owners will test at renewal time.

Why now?

The timing follows the growth math. BWH told Skift it has 3,920 operating hotels, little changed from the "over 3,900" it reported in 2019, with more than 400 properties in the pipeline.

Six years without net unit growth puts pressure on any hotel parent. A name change alone will not add rooms. The bet is that a clearer multi-brand identity converts some share of those 96 million unaware travelers into bookers, and that the merged loyalty program concentrates spending rather than diluting it.

Whether awareness translates into occupancy is the untested part, and the January 5 program merger will offer the first measurable signal — bookings, redemptions, and tier behavior under the new WorldHotels Rewards structure.