Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France presents its 2021 results and announces its new strategic vision – TendanceHotellerie

2021 review

• 303 member hotels of the Best Western® Hotels & Resorts network, with a target of at least 25 openings per year to reach 400 in 2025
• 129 million euros in revenue for 2021, i.e. +51% compared to 2020 and -33% compared to 2019
• Revenue from reservations via the bestwestern.fr site increased by +40% compared to 2020, i.e. revenue of 22.75 million euros in 2021 (compared to 23.4 million euros in 2019)
• ého, the hotel school, has trained 4,100 employees as of December 31, 2021

Perspectives and new vision 2022-2025

Heading towards a hotel industry of the future:

• New platform to digitize the marketing of its B2B offer which will combine its seminar, leisure and event group offer
• Opening of 25 new hotels in 2022
• CSR: 75% of establishments in the network labeled Clef Verte by 2025

An encouraging 2021 financial year

2021 has been a year of recovery and hope as evidenced by rising numbers on almost all key performance indicators. Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France improved its results by capitalizing on its distribution strength, its development, its reputation, its action plans linked to the recovery of activity and on the loyalty of its customers. The group posted a 2021 financial year up +51% compared to 2020, i.e. 129 million euros in turnover centralized on the French market. This growth is accompanied by an increase in the number of overnight stays of +40% and an increase of +8% in its average price.

The effects of the health crisis have once again destabilized the hotel industry, causing yoyo effects on activity. Thus, the first months of the year were particularly complicated, especially for the corporate and leisure segment. Nevertheless, following the first massive vaccination campaign in European countries and the easing of government restrictions, activity restarted in April. Hotels located on the coasts and in the provinces were able to take advantage of this upturn thanks to a real leap in bookings from a mainly national but also European clientele. Then the establishments of the group saw the return of corporate customers at the start of the school year in September, generally throughout France. This newfound stability was, however, undermined by the Omicron variant, marker of the fifth wave and the return of sanitary measures. Over the year, the network’s occupancy rate increased by +2 points.

In 2021, the group and its hoteliers were able to seize all the opportunities available to them in this context. The results remain encouraging and predict a year 2022 still on the rise.

Reservations on the bestwestern.fr site increased by +40% compared to 2020, representing a turnover of 22.7 million generated.

Mobile has been an excellent conversion lever since even if the share of traffic has remained stable (56% of visitors), it represents 28.6% of the site’s turnover, compared to 20.5 % in 2020. On the partner side, Booking.com remains the least impacted distributor.

The corporate market grew by +13% and posted 6.8 million in revenue in 2021, driven mainly by hotels located in the provinces and in the Paris region ; Paris and Nice remaining the most affected. The results of the leisure groups segment remained stable with 1.5 million in turnover generated. The partnership signed with Get Your Group predicts an increase in performance in 2022. The seminar segment saw an increase of +34% with 2.4 million euros generated.

The Best Western Rewards® Loyalty Club saw a good increase in its turnover with an increase of +28.3% compared to 2020. Its community of members increased by +6.7%.

The hotels have maintained all their efforts to deliver the best experience to their customers throughout their stay, from check-in to check-out. The increase in the Net Promoter Score of 10 points in two years bears witness to this. This result reflects all the efforts made by the hoteliers to ensure a level of welcome, cleanliness and optimal availability for their customers, in a particularly delicate context.

In 2021, the group was able to largely meet its development objectives by welcoming 24 new hotels spread throughout France and in all segments, from economy to upscale. The reputation of Best Western® Hotels & Resorts, its loyalty club and the diversity of its brands, are all arguments to convince hoteliers and investors to join the group.

As a cooperative, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France cultivates a close relationship with its members, numerous webinars and meetings have punctuated the year. The head office teams have in fact made sure to support and accompany the hotels in the network at all times towards the revival of activity by drawing up dedicated recovery plans.

Many strategic projects were launched in 2021: the creation of an employer brand promise “ Let’s create your story together », the development of the hotel school ého, or the renewal of its sports partnership with the skipper Romain Attanasio on the Transat Jacques Vabre until the next Vendée Globe 2024. At the same time, the digitization of customer service has been reinforced with in particular the deployment of bots on the group’s communication channels, in addition to human assistance.

The 2022 objectives of Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France

Sports sponsorship, one of the group’s notoriety levers

The group’s ambition is to establish its notoriety and win over new customers by positioning its hotels as a must for all trips. In addition to an ambitious media plan, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France is continuing its sports sponsorship with skipper Romain Attanasio, an excellent ambassador, who this year will wear the group’s colors in the Vendée Arctique, the Azimut challenge and the Route du Rhum.

Towards a more responsible tourism

CSR will be a key element for the group, which intends to strengthen its responsible approach with the objective in 2022 of labeling 60 new hotels in its network via the Green Key, the first sustainable tourism label for tourist accommodation and restaurants, or the Ecolabel. European. At the same time, the group is committed to eliminating, by the end of the year, single-use plastics such as welcome products and plastic bottles in the rooms and in the minibar, as well as handbags plastic laundry to replace them with durable materials.

Training to better recruit

The group demonstrates its ambition to develop a main training offer within its hotel school, ého, in order to be able to train and professionalise the talents of tomorrow, ready to be recruited in hotels. The school plans to focus on 4 professions: receptionists, housekeepers, waiters and kitchen assistants, to meet the priority needs of the sector in terms of profiles and recruitment.

A strong development to conquer the territory

The group will also focus on an ambitious development objective in France with 30 new hotels in 2022 alone. Its myWO coworking brand will also progress throughout the country.

Bots, a winning bet

It will continue its digital transformation and aims to deploy bots on all its hotel sites beyond its bestwestern.fr site. Convinced by the promising results of its own bots, the group is extending this customer relationship lever to its hotel sites in order to boost conversions and increase customer contact points.

A 100% digital B2B offer

It will also launch by the end of the year a new platform to digitize the marketing of its B2B offer which will combine its seminar offer, its leisure group offer and a section for private events.

The group presents its new strategic vision for 2022-2025

Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France begins 2022 with the launch of its new 4-year strategic vision, called “ Heading towards a hotel of the future » and which will include 3 main courses. The group will bring together all its pillars to successfully achieve its objectives

Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France begins 2022 with the launch of its new 4-year strategic vision, called “ Heading towards a hotel of the future » and which will include 3 main courses. The group will bring together all its pillars to successfully achieve its objectives.

Cap 1: Establish the power of the group

• Increase brand contribution to 40% of hotel revenue
• Boost hotel revenue
• Pursue brand awareness and image
• Increase the group’s market share and diversify the portfolio of establishments

Cap 2: Enrich the customer experience to improve satisfaction

• Improving the hotel guest experience
• Make Best Western Rewards® a tool for customer satisfaction
• Accelerate the digitalization of the customer journey
• Protecting our associates’ businesses

Cap 3: Become a socially committed and responsible group

• Anchoring the group in sustainable development initiatives
• Install BWH Hotel Group® as a strong employer brand
• Make ého a benchmark hotel school
• Make BWH Hotel Group® a company with a mission

Intrinsically linked, the increase in turnover, the development of the network, the acquisition of new market shares and the strengthening of notoriety will be key performance indicators.

Always focused on customer satisfaction, the group will continue to innovate to enrich the customer experience and anticipate the needs and consumption patterns of its targets.

The orientations of Best Western® Hotels & Resorts France will be accompanied by a socially committed approach with in particular the reinforcement of training, as a key element of its strategy. It also intends to evolve while gradually decarbonizing its activity.

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