Before Joelle Park headed up the marketing department for BWH Hotels and its portfolio of 18 brands, she — like many others — had this perception, this preconceived notion of Best Western as a roadside hotel that offered good value, reminiscent of American nostalgia.

“What I realized is the Best Western of today is relevant, modern and still good value, but there’s so much more to it than what I thought,” Park said in an exclusive interview with Women Leading Travel & Hospitality. “Right away, the ability to tell the story of a brand for every trip occasion with a global presence of over 4,000 hotels felt like the start.”

Park’s mission, after 13 years leading global integrated campaigns at Hilton, is to transform the perception of Best Western Hotels & Resorts. She seeks to elevate its brand awareness by telling the story of how the brand portfolio enables experiences.

“We humbly acknowledge that we’re not always the reason they travel — the hotel itself,” Park said. “We’re not always the destination; we’re often a point on their journey.”

A Passion for Storytelling

Park has always been drawn to storytelling. As a history major at the University of Virginia, she loved studying the past and always had a curiosity about people. Making Virginia home after graduation, she spent nine years at agencies, studying the stories of her clients. One of those clients happened to be a hospitality brand: Choice Hotels.

Park’s love of hospitality grew after that and eventually led her to Hilton, where she worked across brand management, digital solutions, portfolio strategy, and customer experience.

In the meantime, Park started a family. By the time the offer from BWH Hotels came, her children were nine and 12 years old. Beyond doing some soul searching of her own to see if the job aligned with her values, Park had to consider how the move — from Vienna, VA to Scottsdale, AZ — would affect her family (a visit to the local trampoline park apparently sealed the deal for Park’s kids).

Park said when the opportunity came knocking, she asked herself: “Does it align with my values? Where does my passion and skillset blend together as a kind of Venn diagram?”

What stood out to her most was the storytelling potential of the brands.

“I had no idea that Best Western was part of a global portfolio, and if I don’t know, who else might not know?” recalled Park. “It was tired of being the best-kept secret of this portfolio. My job is to release the secret and tell the world.”

Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

Written in the front of Park’s notebook — she’s an avid journaler — are the words, “So much opportunity.” She calls herself an eternal optimist, which was no doubt a useful superpower to possess during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel restrictions and fear of the virus spreading plunged the hospitality industry into a downward tailspin of financial distress, furloughs, layoffs and closures. An analysis from the American Hotel & Lodging Association six months into the pandemic found that almost 65 percent of hotels were at or below 50 percent occupancy.

“Crisis is in the eye of the beholder,” Park said when asked if she felt like the hotel industry has been in crisis since COVID-19 began spreading in early 2020. She said the pandemic was a wakeup call to what a crisis really is in the industry, however, her eternal optimism allows her to find the silver lining for every hardship.

“The brands that succeed are the ones that seize that and see it as not a crisis but as an opportunity,” Park advised. 

When she arrived at BWH Hotels in 2023, Park began studying the business and the available data, looking for opportunities to drive revenue. In addition to looking at rate and occupancy levels, she introduced new brand health metrics, such as likelihood to consider a brand, its appeal rating, and how relevant customers find it. She found that customers that stayed with Best Western had a higher perception of all 18 brands. Therefore, her team made the strategic decision to simplify the company’s message, lean into the Best Western brand, and then leverage that brand awareness to introduce customers to the other 17 brands in the portfolio.

Then Park sought to capture more consumer insights. Her team began researching globally the types of personas most likely to stay in the company’s hotels. They came up with three based on third-party quantitative and qualitative research as well as customer data, and then crafted differentiated storytelling for each, leaning into emotional connection as the tactic.

Persona No. 1 is Family First. This guest tends to have children and wants a great value and a great experience. There’s added pressure on the trip because they might be working parents, limited by school schedules, etc. “To them, it’s about maximizing the trip and making the most of it,” Park noted.

Persona No. 2 are Adventure Advocates. These are mostly solo travelers or couples who are interested in adventure and the outdoors. “For them, an adventure could be staying at the most beautiful destination resort and just vegging because they need a break and a disconnect,” Park said.

Persona No. 3 are Retired and Relaxed. They’re often traveling as part of a bucket list or visiting loved ones. There’s a multigenerational aspect to it. With their extra disposable income, they want to make the most out of the trip and are seeking value.

Life’s a Trip 

Working with marketing agency PMG, Park uncovered a story about emotional connection once they had identified the three personas. “Where other brands might tell only the joys of travel, we showcase the ups and downs of life and travel,” Park said. “And because we have these personas, we could tell that full, complete story about who they are in life and then uncover or share the role travel plays for them.”

What emerged from this work was BWH Hotel’s “Life’s a Trip” campaign, featuring the imperfect vacation: not serene, smiling travelers enjoying a day at the beach, but a family lugging armfuls of beach toys, chairs and umbrellas across the sand and passing out on a hotel bed after seemingly hours of entertaining children in the ocean.

The 2024 marketing campaign led to overall increases in ad recall and brand awareness, according to Park. BWH saw increases in overall revenue year-over-year, as well as increased search queries, increased social engagement, and increases in loyalty customers.

Year 2 Unfolding

While 2024 was focused on brand relevance of Best Western, 2025 is the year of introducing the rest of the brands in the portfolio to the customer. Park and her team have leaned into influencers in year two to highlight specific hotel brands.

“Having someone else tell your story in an authentic way lends credibility to your message,” Park said about using influencers. “Now that we’re so clear on our personas and we know who we want to reach, we can add to our reach in our media plan by reaching them through others’ followers, through influencers that are already trusted.”

Park’s also leaning into highlighting specific hotels within each brand.

“While brands are important, it’s really about the hotels that have the story,” Park said. She gives the example of Hotel Frantz, part of the World Hotels upscale brand in Stockholm named after master tailor Frantz Bock. The hotel’s rooms are individually themed and tailored to the guest’s expectations in an homage to Bock.

“It’s inspired by the history of a tailor that used to live in this building, and now a whole hotel concept is based on it,” Park said.

Empowering Teams and Leaning Into Seasons

Two years into her role leading the marketing team at BWH, Park said she uses the guiding principle of providing context to empower her team to greatness. “If I’ve hired great people, they deserve to have the information to make decisions in the moment,” said Park. “If they can’t, it’s my job to clarify. My role is to clear obstacles for them. My favorite phrase is, ‘How can I support you?'”

Park repeats a well-known Brené Brown pearl of wisdom: “Find the potential in people and processes, and nurture that potential.”

When asked about her non-negotiables when it comes to work-life balance, Park is quick to dismiss the word “balance” in favor of “seasons.”

“There’s seasons in life when you have to lean into your personal life, maybe into your health, or to help a loved one, and there’s seasons in life when you’re leaning into work,” Park said. A season, according to Park, can be a few hours, days or months, but the key is to communicate to your support network which season you’re in.

“Lean into those seasons and know that sometimes, something’s gotta give,” said Park.