Best Western gains awards and Plus status
Best Western Beach Resort on Fort Myers Beach will soon be adding an additional word to its business title. It also received two prestigious approval-rating awards at a recent international convention.
The traditional descriptor title of Best Western will be changed to Best Western Plus in late December. The third descriptor, Best Western Premier, describes a resort with a full-service restaurant and valet parking amongst other qualified distinctions, according to the beach resort’s Managing General Partner Tim Malbon.
“Being a destination property, we went for the Plus,” said Malbon, who along with his cousin, Jeff Malbon, run Best Western Beach Resort. “We were already basically at the brand standards by meeting the majority of the minimums that they were requiring. To get the Plus designation, we really didn’t have to do much besides getting small amenities.”
In early 2009, Best Western Beach Resort spent $5.1 million in renovating their family-owned business at 684 Estero Blvd.
“When we did our renovations, we went above and beyond because we wanted to be better anyway,” said Jeff Malbon. “But, we didn’t know about the extra distinction at that time.”
Prior to the renovations, Best Western Beach Resort was a two-diamond resort. After the remodeling, it received three diamonds.
“That automatically gave us a Plus designation,” said Tim. “That worked out in our favor. Just by reconfiguring the bathrooms, we jumped from two to three diamonds. We have all the signs, but we just have to work out a few more details.”
The Beach resort collected two district Champion Awards – the Customer Care Award and the Design Award- at the recent annual Best Western International Convention in Vancouver, B.C. Being in District IV, the local Best Western is within the southeastern part of the country and competes against businesses in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. There are more than 4,000 Best Western resorts worldwide.
Also at the convention, Paul Malbon, Jeff’s father, received a Silver Voting Member Recognition Award for being a voting member for more than 20 years.
“Best Western does several different ratings with customer care and quality assurance scores where they come in and inspect you twice a year. They also have guest satisfaction surveys,” said Tim. “In those, we were rated No. 1 in customer care and received three perfect scores to be rated No. 1 in quality assurance. In the customer satisfaction surveys, we were 25th out of 300 properties in our district. Under trip advisor, Best Western received an overall rating of #3 ((out of 42 hotels under popularity index) on Fort Myers Beach.”
The Beach resort has accumulated three consecutive Best Western Chairwoman’s Awards for outstanding quality assurance. The Malbons are expecting Best Western International Chairwoman Beth Campbell to be making another bi-annual resort check in December.
Aside from those distinctions, Best Western Beach Resort has received a Beautification Award by the Town of Fort Myers Beach and, in Nov. 2009, collected an occupancy rating of 93 percent to record its best November ever for the resort.
“In 2009, the off-season was really strong after a weaker season. This year, season was really strong and the off-season was weaker. The BP oil spill didn’t help us out too much. The phones seemed like they quit ringing all together. We’re a victim of perception.”
“It took a lot of momentum out of the summer,” Jeff added.
The upcoming 2010 season and year doesn’t appear to be as bleak.
“Overall, for the year, we should finish up over last year with no problem,” said Tim.
Best Western Beach Resort includes all Gulf front efficiencies with fully equipped kitchens and reconfigured bathrooms.
The Malbons have had a limited partnership in the Best Western Beach Resort since the mid-1980s and, after gaining controlling interest in 1992, arrived from Virginia Beach to take over operations.