Outrigger Surf adds
Best Western to name

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

A name change for an Outrigger Hotels & Resorts' property on Kuhio Avenue is just the latest step in what is likely to be an expanding marketing cooperation, the company says.

The Outrigger Surf at 2280 Kuhio Ave. is now the Best Western Outrigger Surf Hotel. The connection with Best Western International Inc., announced last week, connects the hotel to a sales and reservation system that lists 3,800 hotels in 77 countries.

The importance for Outrigger, which has had relationship with Best Western for eight years, when it signed up what is now the Best Western Outrigger Waikiki Tower Hotel, is the contacts Outrigger didn't previously have.

"We have the same thing they have -- advertising, marketing, a worldwide sales center," said Tom Burke, Outrigger vice president of operations.

"We found Best Western matched with us pretty well as a mid-range hotel organization but they had contacts we didn't have," Burke said.

Best Western has markets in Europe and Asia that Outrigger doesn't reach so well, he said. "There are people who have probably never heard of Outrigger but have heard of Best Western and would probably feel confident," he said.

The result is a "dual flag" arrangement, Burke said.

"Part of the program is to see how well Best Western does for us," he said, and the arrangements made so far could expand to other hotels as Outrigger expands in the Pacific.

What makes it different from a franchise arrangement is that Best Western is a membership organization.

"It's a nonprofit organization that independent hoteliers join -- to band together really -- to take advantage of marketing, advertising and sales," Burke said.

Hotel operators pay something to join and a commission on reservations that come in.

Best Western also publishes a range of travel guides and other marketing aids.

The Hawaii hotels will be in Best Western's District 6, which has 240 hotels in California, Nevada and Hawaii.

Burke is a District 6 governor, seeing to Best Western's interests not only in the Outrigger properties but in other Best Western Hawaii hotels.

"They have the Best Western Plaza at the airport, which does well with military travelers and people who want an overnight stay on their way to somewhere else," Burke said.

There is the Best Western Plantation Hale with 145 condominium-style units on a 28-acre site on Kauai and the Best Western Pioneer Inn, with 38 rooms in Lahaina.