www.bestwestern.comand Nascar booking site at www.bestwesternracing.com

Currently, they've got over 4,100 hotels that fly the Best Western standard. This means that over 310,000 guest rooms in 78 countries are ready and waiting for you at bestwestern.com.

But Best Western is set up very differently than brand names like Hyatt or Marriott. It's a franchise operation, which means that hotels pay a license fee to the company in return for "reservation and property marketing services". All of these hotels are independently owned and operated.

Best Western was founded in 1946 by a California hotelier named M.K. Guertin. M.K was an accomplished veteran in the accomodations industry, having logged 23 years in the field. Best Western International was founded by him as a referral system among a group of hotels. The referral marketing service was an attractive idea, and the company grew quickly. By 1963, Best Western was the largest hotel chain in the industry. The company became an international concern in 1964 when Canadian owners joined. It was not until 1976, however that Best Western truly became a global brand. In that year, hotels from Mexico and Australia became franchisees.

Today, the company has hotels in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the South Pacific -- remember, they're the world's largest! They have multilingual reservation centers in Arizona, Milan, Italy, as well as England and the Philippines. Reservations are also able to be booked at the bestwestern.com site.

Speaking of the site, the Travelsites.com team was favorably impressed. But we weren't surprised...the Best Western team is old hands at this web thing. BestWestern.com launched the hotel industry's "most extensive and complete" directory way back in 1995. The site has won awards from ZDnet and USAToday.com for it's features and ease of use -- and over 44% of the firms reservations occur online.

Ironically, one of the best parts of the site isn't really a feature of the website at all. Best Western distributes over 4,000,000 copies of the BW Travelers Guide & Road Atlas, and this content is available for download at the site. It's a large file (about 18 mgs), but it's worth it, as it contains great information on destinations worldwide.

Business travelers take note -- All Best Western hotels in the US and Canada offer free high speed Internet access. You can logon (wired or wirelessly) in the public areas of the hotel and in about 15% of the rooms as well. They plan to roll this out worldwide, but obviously this is a large project subject to local concerns. If you need access, make sure you call ahead. You can also take advantage of Best Western's Gold Crown Club loyalty program. It offers a free night program with no blackout dates -- for all of the hotels worldwide. If you're traveling with your family, this chain is a good choice as well. You can usually find two or three star accommodations in any major city that will be great accommodations.   Nascar fans will rejoice in the fact that Best Western is official hotel supplier for Nascar -- you can book directly on http://www.bestwesternracing.com/ as well.


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