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Best Western Means Luxury in China

When you hear the name Best Western, the images that likely come to mind are roadside motels with ugly rooms, scratchy sheets, and disposable packets of cheap soap and shampoo. But like an expatriate reinventing herself in a new country, in China the chain is spreading its upscale "Premier" hotels. (Indeed this pic above is from a Best Western in Shenzen.)

A story out in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend (subscribers only) says that the chain is scrapping plans to open a bunch of 3-star budget hotels and has decided instead to launch 40 more luxury hotels to add to its current 20. The main reason? Chinese don't stop and stay along highways and oh yeah, the highways aren't really too great.

The company had planned to replicate in China its American business model: midprice hotels strategically located along highways. That plan changed after it discovered that the rollout of China's national highways is 'not happening as fast as we thought.'

We're assuming this means you get to your Chinese Premier room from an interior hallway and you won't have to slide your credit card under a plexiglass partition when checking in....

[Photo: Oliwilken]