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Best Western History
 Best Western Hotels founded in 1946 by M.K Guertin and consisted of phone referrals from one front desk to another for travelers, approximately 40 properties involved. The idea grew rapidly to 162 properties in 1948 and the first major marketing tool was born. Five million copies of Best Western Hotel guides were distributed through service stations across North America. 1951, saw the first Best Western conference or “roundup” as it was called; 270 delegates attended. Mr. Guertin spoke of the importance of advertising for the general public. This was a revolutionary concept at that time, an idea that quickly became common. 1960, saw the introduction of various quality of hotel requirements put in place.
This has been the bedrock of the Best Western success ensuring quality to every customer. Best Western introduced the first hospitality reservation service across the entire United States and Canada. There were now 670 Best Western hotels in the US and Canada in 1963, 29 more were added to become the largest chain of independent hotel franchise in the world. In 1966 Best Western headquarters was moved to phenix with full time staff. This year Best Western became international, expanding into several countries. In 1970 Best Western quality control program was introduced to set strong standards for 211 Best Western Members. In 1973 the Best Western reservation system began 24/7 operations. In 1979 Best Western was accommodating 15 million guest world wide, internationally had over 1 billion in sales plus 2654 Hotels. Gold Crown club was launched in 1988; within a year 200,000 members had joined. Best Western Logo modifications were not complete with the present Logo being adopted in 1993. Internet marketing was now part of the package, memberships continued to grow. In 2002 Best Western sales reached 20 billion from over 4000 properties in over 80 countries world wide.
Visit the national Best Western site here www.bestwestern.com
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