Can a Surestay Hotel By Best Western use an individual Hotel website for booking?

According to Surestay Hotel By Best Western's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, franchisees are restricted from using individual hotel websites for booking purposes. Specifically, Item 5.1.7 states that franchisees must use the Reservation Service as the sole means of offering reservations to the public and to third parties for booking. This explicitly prohibits the use of an individual Hotel website, booking engine, extranets, or channel manager for reservation purposes.

This restriction ensures that all reservations are channeled through Surestay Hotel By Best Western's central reservation system, allowing the company to maintain brand consistency and manage inventory effectively. It also enables Surestay Hotel By Best Western to track and control the distribution of rooms, ensuring that the hotel adheres to brand standards and participates in required loyalty programs.

For a prospective franchisee, this means they must rely entirely on the franchisor's reservation system for bookings and cannot independently manage online reservations through a separate website or booking engine. While this may limit a franchisee's autonomy in managing their online presence, it also ensures that they benefit from the franchisor's marketing efforts and reservation infrastructure. Franchisees should inquire about the effectiveness and costs associated with the required reservation service to fully understand the implications of this restriction.