Interview – Best Western’s Neville Graham Talks Hospitality, Technology and Greece

Best Western Hotels & Resorts (BW) sees grounds to further expand its brand in Greece, according to the chain’s Managing Director of International Member Services, Neville Graham.

“I think our future in Greece is very positive,” Graham told GTP Headlines during his recent visit to Athens, adding that he expects the Greek market to be interested in the chain’s new brand options.

Greece currently has 8 hotels under the Best Western franchise: five in Athens, two on Zakynthos and one on Rhodes.

Last year, the BW hotels in Greece recorded a five percent increase in overnight stays and a 15 percent rise in revenue.

According to the Best Western Southeastern Europe office in Greece, higher growth was recorded in the BW hotels in Athens with a 19 percent increase in overnight stays and a 26 percent rise in revenue, while the resorts recorded an increase of 5 percent.

The rate of bookings for the BW hotels in Greece for 2018 is on an upward trend as already an increase of 25 percent has been recorded for overnight stays, with a corresponding increase in the average price and with revenues recording growth of 55 percent.

GTP Headlines spoke to Graham on BW’s thoughts regarding the Greek market, the chain’s latest brand changes and also on key issues concerning the hospitality industry.

Best Western Candia Hotel. Photo © Christos Drazos

GTP: How is the Best Western brand developing in Greece and are there any future plans?

Neville Graham: We have 8 hotels in Greece right now and I think our future in Greece is very positive. We’ve gone through a lot of changes in the brand globally, and we’ve re-launched all of our traditional logos from Best Western because the standards of our hotels have increased so much globally around the world. In the last five to six years, we have invested billions of US dollars in the product, so we felt the logo no longer represented today’s BW experience. We’ve also launched a lot of new brands, so BW traditionally would have had a number of brands you would have been familiar with — BW, BW Plus, BW Premier — but now we have 11 brands.

We’ve added some ‘white label’ franchise options (targeted at economy and lower midscale hotels) for example, and we also have soft brand options (to hotel owners in most chain scale segments), which we think will be very interesting in the Greek market. So what we’ve created are these distribution agreements that allow us to brand high quality hotels, put them on our distribution channels without having to put the word Best Western. Our premier one is BW Premier Collection, and then we have one which is for 5-star hotels and then we have the BW Signature Collection which is more for 4-star hotels. So those hotels who don’t necessarily want to use a full brand can have the advantage of our global loyalty program of 33 million members, as well as our distribution to help them grow their business. So yes, I do believe that we absolutely have grounds to expand the brand in Greece.

GTP Headlines’ pick
“…Don’t invest in technology that is hard to understand and not easy for all travelers to use… If you don’t develop technology for all travelers then you’ve failed.” – Neville Graham

GTP: How much do you think technology influences the hotel industry?

Neville Graham: I think technology is very big. The first thing that you have to remember with technology is that — no matter what industry you’re in — if your customers want technology to serve them a better experience then you have to be ready to go there and invest in the technology. The most important thing is to make sure that it’s the right technology to serve the customer so, the best example I give is: don’t invest in technology that is hard to understand and not easy for all travelers to use. Because if you don’t develop technology for all travelers then you’ve failed, as it has to be for both “tech savvy people” and for “non-tech savvy people”, so that everybody who comes across your door can experience and enjoy it. But it is very important to keep on top of technology trends, invest in the right areas, conduct the right market research to make sure that you are investing in the right areas and then roll it out on an international basis and make sure that it works well.

GTP: Can you give a piece of advice for hoteliers on how to succeed in the area of technology?

Neville Graham: I think the most important thing when it comes to technology is to be aware of what the trends are. Develop the technology based on the consumer and what they want. Don’t develop it because it’s cool. If it doesn’t add value to the customer experience it will fail. I think that’s the key and of course you’ve always got to keep on top of it. As soon as you introduce the latest innovation you need to be working on the next one.

GTP: What is the feedback on the Best Western mobile guest engagement platform?

Neville Graham: We have had a lot of very positive feedback. We rolled out North America and have seen significant updates in our guest satisfaction survey scores results and we are currently testing a lot of properties internationally. For the consumer, it is another way of interacting with our hoteliers in a more personalized way. For us it’s great because we have our data every time on our guests and we can use that data in the right way to serve the customer better on their next stay.

GTP Headlines’ pick
“…As much as hoteliers may want to fight it, you have to realize that it’s going to happen…” – Neville Graham (on the sharing economy)

BW Premier Collection Galaxy Hotel.

GTP: In regards to the sharing economy, do you see it as a threat to your business or do you think there is room for all in the hotel industry?

Neville Graham: The most important thing to say is that it is consumer driven, so as much as hoteliers may want to fight it you have to realize that it’s going to happen. As long as the consumer demands it then there is going to be room for it in the market. And I think hoteliers have been very good in the past in terms of welcoming competition and we do welcome competition. Our challenge has been well reported obviously because we are not playing on the same level as, for example, Airbnb. They don’t have the same regulations as hoteliers, they don’t have the same legal constraints that hoteliers have to go through and so they essentially have a free reign to do whatever they want. However, we have to welcome competition although it is a disruptor for our industry. We obviously want to see better legislation to play on the same level.

GTP: In Greece, it has been decided that those who rent their property on Airbnb will have to enroll in a registry. What is your opinion of this development?

Neville Graham: This is very important because the reality is that we are seeing more and more institutionalized owners of Airbnb. I’ve heard examples in different cities where people are buying whole buildings and renting them out on Airbnb and that is not the concept really and basically that is taking tax out of the economy, hurting the hotel industry and a huge potential risk for the reputation of the cities. I’m very happy to hear that Athens is taking those positive steps.

GTP Headlines’ pick
“…We’ve introduced our new boutique concept called “Vib”, which is aimed and designed around feedback from millennial travelers… The BW brand has to stay relevant, so we develop new products and we invest in technology” – Neville Graham

GTP: What is your biggest concern in regards to the hospitality industry. What keeps you awake at night?

Neville Graham: It’s like anything else. It’s the disrupters, the technology, keeping on top of the pace of change. It’s making sure that as a brand we’re relevant to today’s customer and that we deliver the right services and products to our customers. For example, we’ve introduced our new boutique concept called “Vib” (short for Vibrant), which is aimed and designed around feedback from millennial travelers. We developed this because we realized that to appeal to the millennial market, Best Western had to have a product that has a number of signature elements all based around technology. It is completely different from what we’ve ever had in the past but it all puts us out to that millennial market. The BW brand has to stay relevant, so we develop new products and we invest in technology, like our mobile engagement platform. Because if we don’t, then we risk brand extinction. We are very conscious as I’m sure most international brands are because if you don’t stay relevant you will be gone in the future.

GTP: Will we see the new “Vib” brand in Greece?

Neville Graham: Absolutely, “Vib” is primarily designed for urban downtown destinations. It has got a very small footprint, which means that it can be developed in a small space. We are absolutely looking for developers that are interested in the “Vib” product, that want to develop a new product, that want to appeal to millennial travelers and that want to work under our business model, which is independently operated. In early 2017, we opened a “Vib” not too far from Athens, in Antalya, Turkey, so we are developing in the region and we’re up for any opportunities for the Vibe.

Best Western Hotels & Resorts on a worldwide level last year saw an increase in both overnight stays and revenue. In 2017 revenue exceeded $2.4 billion, up 10 percent, while overnight stays increased by 7.8 percent to over 22 million, according to the hotel chain’s reservation system.

In the Southeastern Europe market, which is supervised by the Greek office, BW’s reservation system recorded an increase of 13 percent in overnight stays and of 21 percent in revenue.