Best Western Rewards - Why bother?

I've been Best Western Diamond (100% earned) for 3 years, and I can honestly say that in that time I've had maybe 5 room upgrades, against about 250 nights.

So what are the benefits of this programme? Sure, I can book just about any property the day before and get a room, same as I can at gold level in most elite programmes. Sure, I can get a meagre points bonus, but I don't seem to get anything else.

HH diamond, On the other hand, delivers and delivers and delivers... But Hilton hotels are often not conveniently located for out of the way places (except for maybe a Hampton Inn, which is not a brand I enjoy), and are often needlessly expensive.

BW properties, OTOH, are EVERYWHERE, and you can often find one exactly where you want.

I'm was actually considering doing the Marriott Plat challenge (which I found out about through FT) as Marriott often have better placing and/or bang for buck than Hilton (IME), but having just moseyed over to the Marriott forum, it seems that the Plats there are none too thrilled with their lot in life either!

What to do...

Paul.

How often do you actually ask for a (specific) upgrade?

I don't, is the honest answer- didn't know you were meant to. I do ask non-specifically ("Did I get an upgrade?"), to which the answer is either confusion, no, or BS ("You were upgraded to a poolside room!" ... Checks reservation... "I PAID for a poolside room!" "Oh, erm, they are very nice rooms". No exaggeration, happened last week"

About the only hotel where I do get consistently upgraded is the Towne Inn in Milwaukee. Almost worth staying diamond for that- it's a tatty old hotel, but the location is phenomenal if you like beer and sausages ;-)

As far as I can tell, guaranteed room availability is not one of the perks for any level:

Diamond Elite Level

Diamond level is achieved after completing 30 qualified nights at any Best Western hotel worldwide during a calendar year. Diamond members are entitled to:

* 30% point bonus*
* Exclusive offers
* Complimentary room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out privileges, upon availability
* Purchase points for award redemption (1,000 points for $10)*


================

The way I see it, the availability of their product is the only reason to be a member. Everything else about this program is really bad, tho the 2 stays == 1 night cert is a pretty good, but limited (1 or 2 night if elite), promo.

Really with an offer so grand as this :rolleyes: how can you not want to be a diamond level elite? :

US Airways Dividend Miles Preferred Members that register and stay 3 times prior to December 31, 2010 will get 750 bonus miles. - (Jan 19, 2009 - Dec 31, 2010) - Promo Code: USELITE09 - US Airways Dividend Miles Preferred 1500 Miles offer is valid for Best Western RewardsSM, formerly Gold Crown Club® International (GCCI), members residing in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean only that complete any 3 qualified stays between 1/19/09 and 12/31/09. 750 bonus miles will be issued upon the completion of the third qualified stay. Member's Best Western RewardsSM account earning preference must be set to US Airways Dividend Miles. Pre-registration and BWR membership required prior to first stay. Qualified stays must be at a mileage eligable rate.

Bob: LOL! That's an offer and a half- like when you go to a grocery store and a food item has been reduced from $2.40 to $2.32 ;-)

Yeah, I think we'll have to conclude that BW's rewards programme is lame (although the 2 $50 gift cards were indeed a nice treat).

At an economic time like this, though, I'm amazed BW won't beef this up: obviously they have recognised the fact that they have a unique opportunity to poach Marriott/Hilton/SPG elites as everyone cuts expenses (At least, I assume this is the reason for the guaranteed status match promo...), but you give up a hell of a lot of perks to join BW.

I was exclusively BW for a while, but I got so sick of the lack of recognition (I can't even book a guaranteed room 48 hours in advance FFS!) that I now use BW for locations that are as yet un-Hiltonized and then Hilton group properties for cities and airports.

I honestly think that if BW would only:

- Offer meaningful Diamond benefits
- Clearly tier their hotels so that business people do not ever wind up staying in one of the unnaceptable not-renovated-for-40-year motels
- Have a targeted marketing push with a meaningful benefit (I dunno, $200 gift card for anyone staying 20 nights in 90 days or something)

Then they would see massive defection from the more upscale groups, and possibly from the more downscale groups too.

Just my musings!

Paul.

- Clearly tier their hotels so that business people do not ever wind up staying in one of the unnaceptable not-renovated-for-40-year motels

And which hotel family does this?

Tiering is done by features like whether the hotel is full service or not, not by quality judgements like whether it is decrepid or spiffy.

You can find old and new Hiltons, old and new Hamptons (including still ones with exterior room entrances), old and new Doubletrees. Perhaps there are very few old HGI's. But even if there's a brand or two within HHonors where the hotel is likely to be newer, there's no brand reserved for the old decrepid ones (they just stay in the brand they were originally in until they're either renovated or eliminated from HHonors).

And all too many of these brands take in what other hotel families dumped. I even know of one Hampton that's a rebrand of a former Radisson Suites (in Santa Ana CA on Hotel Terrace Drive), with some renovation in the overall hotel (lobby & breakfast area), but the suites themsevles don't feel very renovated to me.

... And a survey Best Western gave me a few months back about three potential tiers matches that up. Lots of questions about which features I would associate with which tier and who the marketing for each tier would be aimed at, but no mention of old and descrepid vs new and spiffy.

And which hotel family does this?

Tiering is done by features like whether the hotel is full service or not, not by quality judgements like whether it is decrepid or spiffy.


Come on now, that's just plain ridiculous. Yes, you can stay in some crappy Hamptons, but you will NEVER stay in a Hampton or Courtyard that is actually dirty and has loud, inefficient A/C or is downright dangerous. BW unfortunately do have these properties. I know, I've stayed in them :-(

And which hotel family does this?

Tiering is done by features like whether the hotel is full service or not, not by quality judgements like whether it is decrepid or spiffy.


Come on now, that's just plain ridiculous. Yes, you can stay in some crappy Hamptons, but you will NEVER stay in a Hampton or Courtyard that is actually dirty and has loud, inefficient A/C or is downright dangerous. BW unfortunately do have these properties. I know, I've stayed in them :-(
Well, maybe not, but I've stayed (though it was many years ago) at a Hampton Inn in Texas City TX which had moldy bagels at breakfast (or else had bagels with most disgusting food coloring ever added, if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt).

And I've stayed at Doubletrees and Holiday Inns that were dirty, yet I don't think that Hilton's offical tiering of Doubletree is "dirty hotels in bad need of updating", is it?

While Hampton is one of the few brands that I tend to trust without checking TripAdvisor necessarily, that's not what I would say for all of Hilton's brands. In fact, in Hilton's case, it's their midline brands that are more consistent (perhaps because so much more of them are new builds?), while their old line brands that are less consistent in quailty. (It's a Doubletree because it has a cookie, not because it's good or bad. It's a Hilton because it's a full service hotel, not because it's good or bad.)

There is a difference between tiering and throwing out. I once stayed in a BW that was horrible but a year or two later BW threw it out. (Unfortunately, some third-party hotel sites don't realize this, and still list it as a BW, even though BW itself hasn't listed it for several years now!)

But if you can't get a hotel chain to throw the hotel out or force them to improve, I don't see how you can expect them to be the first chain in the industry to tier by quality rather than by features. (Because creating a low quality tier would require admitting that you have enough low quality properties to have a whole tier of them!)

Unfortunately, all the hotel families which concentrate on the lower end (BW, Choice, Cendant's WyndhamRewards, etc) have a mix of decent and awful properites in most or all of their brands. With the exception of BW, they all have multiple brands, yet if there is any correlation between brands and quality it is imperfect and statistical at best. (Right now over in Choice forum there's a thread where one person claimed they're never seen a decent Quality Inn, to which I came back with a list of several that have great reviews and which I've stayed at and would gladly stay at again. Nevertheless, it may well be the case that a greater proportion of Quality Inns are lousy compared to, say, Sleep Inns, which are in the same hotel family. But it's not a simple case of one brand being always good and another brand always bad.)

Hi sdsearch,

You do make a fair point, but I guess my question was a little loaded. As you no doubt know, 'new' BW properties almost exclusively are built to compete with Courtyards/Hamptons/Four Points, and there is active discussion within BW to create a 'business' tier for these properties (according to a couple of managers with whom I'm friendly). I don't know if this will transpire, as I first got wind of it over a year ago, but I do think it would be a big leap forward for BW- not so much trashing the old motels as promoting the newer/well updated properties for the gems they are.

I can see both arguments, but it is darned frustrating to book into a BW property that sounds like it checks all the boxes but is actually a dump- last minute travel changes don't always give regular travellers the time to check out tripadvisor tbh. I believe BW could actually use this as a differentiator from other brands if they hit it right.

Cheers,

Paul.

I really see no advantage to this program in the US. Europe could be different, especially if you chose miles over points.

I usually only stay at one BW in the US and was basically told by the staff my diamond status made no difference in the upgrades. If they have an upgrade I'll get it based on avaiability not status just based on the number of times I stay there. The staff knows me by name.

Now hilton is another story. They give you both points and miles so the points are really nice. If you stay at a property with an executive lounge that is great and if you can't get upgraded and don't want the breakfast or are staying at a hotel where all guests get breakfast, you can get 1,000 bonus points on top of the 50% bonus.

If you stay at the same BW property a lot, I would just ask for the upgrade and you will probably get it. It seems they give upgrades based on how frequnetly you stay at the property over your status with BW.

last minute travel changes don't always give regular travellers the time to check out tripadvisor tbh.
Well, the issue is, you seem to be comparing only to higher-up programs.

This issue of big inconsistency within the same brand is not only true of BW, but also of many brands in the other budget programs, like WynhdamRewards' Super 8, Days Inn, Travelodge, etc brands, and Choice's Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Rodeway Inn, EconoLodge, etc brands. There are both fine and horrible motels in each of those brands.

So if you don't want to risk horrible, you have to move up from budget to at least Hampton. Only problem is: That might cost you many $$ a night in some locations. For example: In Santa Ana CA, the Hampton Inn & Suites is routinely $125 or more while the reasonable Comfort Inn next door is half that or even less, and the reasonable Quality Inn across the street is not that much more than the Comfort. (And for a few bucks more still, there's a BW, that's certainly no better in most ways than the Quality Inn across the street.) But 10 miles down the road in Anaheim, where there are several each of Quality and Comfort, there is at least one of each of those two brands you'd definitely want to avoid.

So if you don't know the area, your inability to check TripAdvisor and insistence on only reliable brands like Hampton could cost you plenty. (Enough, after a few times, though you could buy a very smart phone on which you could check TripAdvisor from anywhere that you can place a call to reserve a hotel!)

I don't, is the honest answer- didn't know you were meant to.
Lately I've found that I have to be proactive and specific with many, maybe most, of my upgrade requests, across all programs. It's really unfortunate but at the heart of it, I truly believe that the average desk clerk doesn't think about elite status and upgrading the same way we do.

The only program where I am routinely awarded good upgrades is Priority Club. It seems like Holiday Inn and HI Express properties with suites love to upgrade Platinum members. But even there, I've had occasion to need to ask for a specific type of larger room, as the upgrade was not forthcoming.

Personally, I've reset my expectations, and now I'm ok with just asking. Especially if I can send an e-mail or use the comments in advance. I'm rarely turned down that way and it's starting to bother me less that I have to ask. :D

Another thing that kind of sucks is what a "qualified night" is.

Come in on a AAA eligible night switched over to the "Managers special", assured by the front desk that it was "qualified". Then of course, not.


EDIT -- Note the switch was unasked for.

This rate counts for points, but not for airline miles. From the Best Western Rewards T&C.

Points:

Effective February 28, 2008, all rate programs qualify for earning points, except Leisure Club (LC), House Plan (HP), Employee/Member (E), European Employee (EE), Preferred Net (DI/D2), Priceline (PL/PN), Travelocity Promotional (D3), Orbitz Promotional (44), Expedia (FIT), Net/FIT (FI), Travel Agent Discount (TA), Tours (Group Tour Operator), Group (OF/OG), Crew and Deeply Discounted Extended Stay and Hotel Negotiated (greater than 20 percent discount), GCCI (FX), Dynamic Net Tour (X2), Dynamic Vacation Packages (WB), Amenity Packages, Unit Card (UC), Site 59 (59) and other locally negotiated hotel discount rates for crew or extended stays for longer than one week.

Airline Miles:

Effective February 28, 2008, all rate programs qualify for earning airline rewards, except Leisure Club (LC), House Plan (HP), Managers Special (MR), Employee/Member (E), European Employee (EE), Preferred Net (DI/D2), Priceline (PL/PN), Travelocity Promotional (D3), Orbitz Promotional (44), Expedia (FIT), Net/FIT (FI), Travel Agent Discount (TA), Tours (Group Tour Operator), Group (OF/OG), Crew and Deeply Discounted Extended Stay and Hotel Negotiated (greater than 20 percent discount), GCCI (FX), Dynamic Net Tour (X2), Dynamic Vacation Packages (WB), Amenity Packages, Unit Card (UC), Site 59 (59) and other locally negotiated hotel discount rates for crew or extended stays for longer than one week.

All reward programs have restrictions and it is always a good idea to review and understand them. I personally have had better luck with Best Western and qualifying nights than other hotel chains.

When I mentioned switched over, that was done involuntarily and without prior approval by the front desk personal who believed they were doing a favor. When I questioned this change to a previously set reservation I was assured that it was a qualified rate.

I am reasonably well aware that AAA rates are legit for all promos.

I would call Best Western Rewards with your original reservation number, showing the AAA rate. If the hotel changed your rate, they should be able to issue a credit. The original reservation should prove you booked at a qualifying stay and the hotel did not process it correctly. Worse they can do is no.

Was thinking about this thread today... FINALLY received an unsolicited upgrade in the US last week...

Stayed at the Franklin Square Inn in Troy, New York and, without prompting, was upgraded to their double sized whirlpool suite. (Quite a nice hotel too, freshly remodeled)

Maybe they sensed somehow that I had looked at room types and was prepared to request an upgrade to a suite? :D

I was BW Diamond for 3 years (regular visits to a customer where BW was the only hotel around) and never got upgraded in that property as they only had one level of rooms. Elsewhere I found my upgrade rate to be almost non-existent.

In the end, I stopped using BW and now I have over 250,000 points to spend.

I was BW Diamond for 3 years (regular visits to a customer where BW was the only hotel around) and never got upgraded in that property as they only had one level of rooms. Elsewhere I found my upgrade rate to be almost non-existent.

In the end, I stopped using BW and now I have over 250,000 points to spend.

The only US BW property I stay at is in chicago and the only reason is location (the staff is great there though and the hotel is pretty modern, especially for a BW). I have found NO benefits in being Diamond (got it through a status match) or when I was platnium (I did earn that through stays) if you go for miles and not points. Even with points only a 30% bonus is nothing too generous seeing Hilton gives you 50% bonus PLUS miles and if you go for points only at Hilton you end up getting double miles. I can't imagine anyone does a mattress run with BW.

A friend of mine decided to try the BW presidential in times square two weeks ago and he looked on BW.com and knew upgrades were available. He asked if he could be upgraded being a diamond and was told they don't upgrade people for free!!!

I became BW diamond from a status match and have been staying at BWs in the eastern Sierra this summer. At the Mammoth lakes BW I have to beg for an upgrade but they finally gave in and I ended up with a suite. At the Lone Pine BW, the snotty young woman at the front desk said--no upgrades ever. I asked what diamond status got at this motel and she replied "diamond status means nothing here". :rolleyes: They had pre-assigned me to a dungeon-like room with no front window (most rooms have views of the eastern Sierra and Mt Whitney) and the only window was in the bathroom facing the dumpsters. I immediately canceled my reservation and stayed elsewhere. :td:

I became BW diamond from a status match and have been staying at BWs in the eastern Sierra this summer. At the Mammoth lakes BW I have to beg for an upgrade but they finally gave in and I ended up with a suite. At the Lone Pine BW, the snotty young woman at the front desk said--no upgrades ever. I asked what diamond status got at this motel and she replied "diamond status means nothing here". :rolleyes: They had pre-assigned me to a dungeon-like room with no front window (most rooms have views of the eastern Sierra and Mt Whitney) and the only window was in the bathroom facing the dumpsters. I immediately canceled my reservation and stayed elsewhere. :td:

THat's awful. And I thought Hilton was getting back with diamond upgrades:)

This thread is making me tempted to try the other BWs nearby... See if I can continue to buck the trend in the upgrades department. :cool:

This thread is making me tempted to try the other BWs nearby... See if I can continue to buck the trend in the upgrades department. :cool:

I see you are in chicago. If you want a local BW the Hawthorne is great about upgrading their regulars:)

Tiering is done by features like whether the hotel is full service or not, not by quality judgements like whether it is decrepid or spiffy.

Just to revisit an old thread, I just wanted to let you know that prompted by a marketing email from BW, I just called a BW GM I know. Lets see what happens, but he claims that the new BW+/BW Premier properties will indeed be graded on spiffiness as well as simple box ticking. This is a major leap forward for BW if true, and, at least in my case, a potentially major setback for Hilton ;-)

Cheers, and Merry-nearly-Christmas all.

Paul. (waiting on tenterhooks to see if my parents actually arrive tomorrow......)