The 2025 BWH Accommodations Annual Conference is underway on the Seattle Conference Heart Summit in Seattle, Washington. With the theme “Welcome Begins Right here,” each actually and in a broader sense, the corporate is emphasizing its purpose to grow to be essentially the most welcoming hospitality model on this planet. Its neighborhood-focused model positioning reinforces this mission by specializing in welcoming friends to every lodge’s local people across the globe and offering distinctive moments that flip stays into reminiscences and construct long-term loyalty.
This mindset was the important thing function of the overall session, the place BWH Accommodations President and Chief Govt Officer Larry Cuculic’s coffee-themed jokes in recognition of Seattle’s sturdy ties to Starbucks have been a preview of the place-based positioning that’s the firm’s map for the long run. Cuculic defined that BWH Accommodations welcomes vacationers to their neighborhoods; property homeowners and workers know their native areas, they usually may help friends type connections with them as effectively. “This positioning truly celebrates what makes us distinctive, the genuine connections our motels have with their communities,” he stated. Cuculic underlined how BWH Accommodations “pioneered welcoming hospitality” practically 80 years in the past, and it stays a key element of the model transferring ahead. He famous that welcoming is so simple as smiling at friends and thanking them to create significant, private moments briefly interactions.
The deal with being the business chief in welcoming hospitality was strengthened all through the presentation, as Cuculic said that BWH Accommodations desires to encourage vacationers with distinctive experiences and welcome them in memorable methods. “This 12 months’s conference theme signifies the start of this transformation,” he stated. “Welcome begins right here. Welcome begins now. Regardless of the place a visitor stays, they are going to be welcome in memorable methods. Regardless of the vacation spot, we persistently welcome friends by bringing points of the encircling neighborhood into that lodge expertise.”
Past sharing this imaginative and prescient of welcoming hospitality, Cuculic confirmed how offering memorable experiences for friends is already driving progress for the corporate. He pointed to BWH Accommodations’ efficiency, together with a rise in its general expertise rating (82.2 brand-wide), and highlighted how BWH Accommodations’ international enterprise enterprise generated $8.5 billion in international income within the final 12 months. He additionally said that the corporate hit a every day file of $7.56 billion on its web site on July 8 and reached a RevPar index of 108 in 2024, which marked a rise from the prior 12 months. With these leads to thoughts, Cuculic seemed to the long run and reiterated that the mission was to make BWH Accommodations essentially the most welcoming model by being distinctive and related.
Likewise, Joelle Park, senior vice chairman and chief advertising officer for BWH Accommodations, mentioned this model technique and said that BWH Accommodations’ welcoming hospitality represented a promoting level that they might declare higher than their opponents. Park detailed how analysis confirmed that friends wish to really feel welcomed. “We welcome vacationers to our neighborhoods in ways in which others can’t,” she stated. “That is impressed by what we noticed taking place in our motels and client analysis. Your workers genuinely search to know our friends. Thus, it’s private. That analysis confirmed that if we persistently simplify issues, if we respect them, and if we deliver the native in, we’ll stand out from the competitors.”
All through the hospitality business, it’s more and more clear that friends are in search of hyperlocal experiences, and Park highlighted knowledge exhibiting that they’re extra more likely to e-book from manufacturers that ship particular moments that they will take with them. That is the blueprint for BWH Accommodations’ future, as Park said that the mixture of welcoming and incorporating the native neighborhood is what makes the corporate particular. “This neighborhood insider angle, it’s our superpower. It’s precisely what our viewers is craving,” she continued. “They need one thing a little bit particular, they usually wish to share it. Right here’s the system. After we lean into welcoming and we pair it with a neighborhood that’s genuine and native, that’s how we obtain model relevance and differentiation.”
As BWH Accommodations embarks on this journey, Park requested every proprietor to deal with one factor that the visitor may study solely from staying at that property. In doing so, they’d deliver the neighborhood expertise into the keep, assist the visitor really feel welcome, and construct connections that create loyalty, thus contributing to the objective of creating BWH essentially the most welcoming hospitality model on this planet.
“When a model shares what they uniquely provide to the world, after which we marry that with what customers crave, that is the place highly effective branding occurs,” Park stated. “Regardless of the place we’re, wherever your lodge is, we’re a worldwide community with this native heartbeat, and each keep is connecting friends to the soul of that vacation spot.”
