BWH Hotels is consolidating its portfolio of more than 4,000 hotels across 18 brands under a single global masterbrand, WorldHotels, the company announced on Tuesday (27 October).
The company said its 18 brands are not being renamed, however. According to the company, the transition is designed to raise brand awareness, provide greater clarity for travellers and hotel owners and support growth.
"We have a hotel for virtually every travel occasion, but many travellers only know a portion of our portfolio," WorldHotels president and CEO Larry Cuculic said in a statement. "WorldHotels gives us a clearer way to tell our story."
WorldHotels was acquired by Best Western Hotels & Resorts in 2019. That same year, Best Western adopted BWH Hotel Group (later shortened to BWH Hotels) as the parent brand of Best Western and WorldHotels.
In recent years, BWH has expanded its portfolio across luxury, boutique, upscale, extended-stay and economy segments but struggled to break free from its midscale roots among customers.
"One of the big realisations when I got here was the overall size and scope of our upscale and above portfolio – sometimes, perception in the marketplace is that we don't represent that, that we are kind of more midscale, upper midscale," SVP of worldwide sales Chad Fletcher told BTN in June amid the launch of an upscale and luxury sales division to grow corporate accounts.
WorldHotels' upscale and luxury hotels will now be unified under WorldHotels Collection, "a global platform for independent properties that preserves the individuality that increasingly drives traveller choice," according to the company.
The collection comprises six WorldHotels categories: Luxury, Elite, Distinctive, Crafted, Backdrop and Residences.
As part of the brand transformation, the company is also launching a unified loyalty platform under the existing WorldHotels Rewards name.
The new platform will combine about 70 million members from the existing Best Western Rewards and WorldHotels Rewards programmes.
The new WorldHotels Rewards will introduce three membership tiers while retaining existing benefits, including status matching, member rates and points that don't expire. The programme will launch on 5 January 2027. WorldHotels said it will announce additional details about the program on 16 November.
As Fletcher previously shared with BTN, the company also plans to launch a new website and redesigned mobile app in 2027 to support the loyalty programme.