Best Western docu-series boosts bookings and membership enquiries

Best Western Great Britain has more than doubled its bookings since lockdown and enquiries to join the brand have gone up 200% in just seven days following the transmission of its Channel 4 series, A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western.

The three-part docu-series was created by Plum Pictures and filmed over a 15-month period before the outbreak of Covid-19. The series follows the group’s hoteliers and Best Western’s development and assessment team.

Rob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Great Britain, said: “Just half an hour into the first episode our website was lighting up and hasn’t stopped since. Users are up nearly 3,700% (3,681%) since the series started seven days ago. We are trending above last year’s levels when the world was open, hotels were being booked for summer, and no-one had heard of Covid-19. It is quite extraordinary, I never thought I would say our best web days of 2020 so far would be in lockdown, but they are, which gives us a real boost at a tough time for hospitality.

“Not only that be we have more than doubled our bookings since lockdown started and enquiries to join our brand have rocketed, up 200% in just seven days. Of course, the show has been strategically edited to create maximum entertainment value, but hospitality is about fun and camaraderie and that is what we wanted to try and show. We love our hotels and are serious about helping them be a success, but we do it with a smile on our faces too.”

Stuart Cabb, managing director of Plum Pictures, said: “Best Western joined in, opened their doors fully and let us see for ourselves the unique staff and hotels they have. They were bold and said they wanted us to capture the spirit, good humour and pride in what they do. I think we have done that.”

Of the marketing consortium’s membership, approximately 230 hotels have closed following the government-enforced lockdown, while 51 remain open to support key workers or host discharge patients. Click here to read The Caterer’s interview with Rob Paterson on how Best Western converted its hotels to discharge hospitals for recovering patients.

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