Best Western

Best Western began in the years following World War II as Best Western Motels. At the time, most hotels were either large urban properties or smaller family-owned roadside hotels and motels. In California, a network of independent hotel operators began making referrals of each other to travelers. This "referral system" consisted of phone calls between one desk operator and another. This small and informal network eventually grew into the modern Best Western motel/hotel brand founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946.

The name "Best Western" originated from the fact that most of the chain's original operators were west of the Mississippi River in the United States. By 1962 Best Western had the only hospitality reservations service covering the entire United States, and in 1963, was the largest motel brand in the industry with 699 member properties and 35,201 rooms. From 1946 to 1964 Best Western had a marketing partnership with Quality Courts, the forerunner of the chain known today as Quality Inns, whose properties were located mostly east of the Mississippi River, and thus not in direct competition with Best Western. This partnership made sense geographically, but was not successful in the long run, and was eventually abandoned. In 1964 Best Western launched an expansion effort of its own operations east of the Mississippi under the name "Best Eastern" for those properties with the same typeset and Gold Crown logo as "Best Western." By 1967 the "Best Eastern" name was dropped and all motels from coast-to-coast got the "Best Western" name and Gold Crown, a move that would further enhance an already successful marketing brand into the "World's Largest Hotel Chain" by the 1970s.

Best Western's "Gold Crown" logo was introduced in 1964 and would continue with a few minor revisions over the next 32 years, until it was replaced by a blue and yellow logo in 1996. In 2015, Best Western introduced a new family of logos, replacing the core logo and adding signage for Best Western Plus and Best Western Premier.

Best Western purchased WorldHotels in February 2019 adding approximately 360 additional hotels and 81,248 more rooms to its brand. BWH Hotel Group was formed as the parent company of Best Western and WorldHotels following this acquisition.

Legal dispute

Best Western used to call itself a cooperative membership association and, as such, could be seen as a co-op. Around 1985, it abandoned the "cooperative" terminology after courts insisted on calling it a franchisor despite its nonprofit status. In Quist v. Best Western Int'l, Inc., 354 N.W.2d 656 (N.D. 1984), in which the North Dakota Supreme Court decided that Best Western was a franchisor and had to comply with the appropriate laws and regulations.

Best Western GB

Best Western GB began in 1978 when Interchange Hotels of the United Kingdom, consisting of independent hoteliers from key locations in the UK, elected to trade under the brand name Best Western United Kingdom, becoming an affiliate of Best Western International in the US. The brand has over 250 locations in the United Kingdom.

Best Western Australia and New Zealand

In 1981, Homestead Motor Inns of Australia affiliated with Best Western. This move put 'International' after the Best Western name. The company has since been known as Best Western International.

In early 2007, Best Western Australia took over the rights to operate Best Western properties in New Zealand from the previous company, the Motel Federation of New Zealand. Currently, Best Western Australia has 205 properties in the group (11 in New Zealand and 194 in Australia).

Best Western operates the following 19 brands in six different categories:

Aspirational

WorldHotels Luxury

WorldHotels Elite

WorldHotels Distinctive