Best Western Enables Travelers to Buy Gift Cards in Multiple Currencies

NATIONAL REPORT—Givex is teaming up with Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ Best Western Travel Card Program, enabling guests to purchase gift cards from the hotel brand in multiple currencies.

As Best Western’s global footprint expands, and its rewards program continues to grow, a scalable gift card solution became critical. “Givex is a leader in this space and provides the secure features, product control and enhanced reporting and operational capabilities we need, while also delivering a significant benefit to our customers and partners,” said Dorothy Dowling, SVP and chief marketing officer, Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

Founded in 1999, Givex was one of the first cloud technology providers for gift cards and serves mid-size to large, multinational brands in the retail, restaurant and hospitality verticals, noted Graham Campbell, COO, Givex.

“When it comes to gift card programs, you find that most products on the market are pretty limited, lack features and scale poorly for large companies that have high transaction volume and require a lot of support and advanced features,” said Campbell. “Givex is a true end-to-end provider that offers all of these features and services, and makes it easy for brands to grow their sales.”

There are clear benefits the brand and its guests will receive as a result of the partnership. “Enhancing the customer experience is a priority at Best Western, and Givex allows us to provide improved gift card access to our customers,” said Dowling. “Now Best Western customers worldwide have the ability to purchase digital cards on a simplified and safe system, and hoteliers also benefit with enhanced reporting and functionality.”

“Best Western always had an international program, but it was much more manual and labor intensive,” said Campbell. “Trying to scale would just make these problems worse. Givex technology streamlines a lot of this and Best Western also gains essential features, like currency conversion and reporting that properly supports cross-border activity.”

In terms of the business proposition, Best Western saw the global advantages to partnering with Givex. Many international hotel chains use Givex, too.

“Best Western has big plans to grow the program and really leverage it across their 4,500 hotels and resorts,” said Campbell. “They were really impressed with Givex’s robust feature set and reporting that would give them visibility and control over their entire program. Being able to offer cards in multiple currencies, sell gift cards in one country (or online) and redeem them in another are all crucial for these companies. But not many gift card providers have this capability or give them the global support that we do.”

“At the pace Best Western and Best Western Rewards are growing, Givex provides the flexibility necessary to meet the ever-changing needs and expectations of our customers,” concluded Dowling.