Home NEWS Strong Revenue Growth in Central Eastern Europe

Strong Revenue Growth in Central Eastern Europe

Best Western Hotels Central Europe

After Best Western Hotels Central Europe GmbH has been reorganized last year with now ten countries under the common corporate umbrella and the global brand relaunch, the signs point to growth. The financial year 2016 was concluded successfully with a stable revenue growth in all countries, which are supervised by the service centers in Eschborn, Vienna and Bern. The new company structure, which is no longer limited by national borders and to which more than 230 individual hotels belong, contributed to a stronger marketing and sales power for the member hotels.

In the countries Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia (Central Eastern Europe) the revenues generated by Best Western in 2016 grew about 16 percent to 4.8 million euros compared to the previous year. In all countries of the BWCE region Best Western could increase the generated revenues in the hotels by about 12 percent to 154.9 million euros compared to 2015.

In 2016, the year of its 70th anniversary, Best Western saw far-reaching changes. The brand of individual hotels has reinvented itself over the last year, in order to render the entrepreneurially independent hotels even more successful. Therefore, since the start of the last year more than 230 hotels in the ten countries Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland are under the corporate umbrella of the Best Western Hotels Central Europe GmbH with the main office in Eschborn (Germany) as well as regional offices in Bern (Switzerland) and Vienna (Austria).

“The integration of formerly separated regions has worked very well. We could generate increases in revenue in all countries due to accelerated cross-border marketing”, says Marcus Smola, CEO of Best Western Hotels Central Europe GmbH. “Because of the concentration of our activities all our member hotels could benefit from more central services and a stronger sales and marketing power”, explains Smola at the annual press conference of the hotel group in Frankfurt.

16 Percent Plus Realized in the First Year

In the region Central Eastern Europe, at the moment 13 hotels with 1,343 rooms at the locations Bojnice, Bled, Ljubljana, Maribor, Brno, Ostrava, Prague (4), Zagreb (2) und Székesfehérvár belong to the brand. These houses gained a direct overall generated room revenue of 4.8 million euros by the brand, which is a plus of 15.6 percent compared to the previous year. “The increased revenues in the countries Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary Slovakia and Slovenia show that we successfully generated business in hotels with our services and that our various marketing and sales measures took effects”, says Smola.

A look on the development of the whole region, which is supervised by the new Best Western Hotels Central Europe (BWCE), shows the successful development of the group in the first year. The merger of the countries into one cross-border organization has paid off economically for the member hotels in all countries. Thus, the generated total revenue via Best Western channels for the individual hotels in all countries has grown by 11.98 percent to 154.9 million euros in 2016 compared to the previous year. “We are pleased that our measures and initiatives have born fast and significant fruits already in the first year of the new Best Western Hotels Central Europe. We expect a further stable growth in the countries attached – in revenues as well as in the expansion of our portfolio”, says Smola.

best western premier hotel

By now, the Best Western Hotels Central Europe GmbH provides hotel operators with the following brand offers, for the respective hotel or location: Best Western, Best Western Plus, Best Western Premier, Vib and the soft brand BW Premier Collection. “In all markets we see potential to expand with all our brand offers. Considering the increasing market concentration, it is important to provide individual hotel operators with professional instruments and offer services in order to compete successfully in the future. We observe that hotels, which do not belong to international brands, will have a hard time due to rapid digitalization of the sales’ world, permanently increasing distribution costs and a sharper competition for guests and employees”, continues Smola. Best Western successfully manages to combine individuality and professional brand power because the hotels stay entrepreneurially independent and benefit from the sales and marketing power of a worldwide brand at the same time.

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