Best Western and VFM Leonardo have a long standing relationship. As a pioneer in hotel eBusiness merchandising, Best Western originally began working with VFM Leonardo as an early adopter of photo and rich media distribution services. The relationship has developed successfully and Best Western’s hotels have benefitted greatly over the years.

VScape will be integrated with Best Western’s internal database and quickly allow photos to be updated and displayed across thousands of electronic channels in VFM Leonardo’s VNetwork™ – the largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry. By adopting VScape, Best Western will have the ability to push 15 photos for each property into VFM Leonardo’s database. This places them into each property’s photo library and distributes them to all four GDSs as well as Pegasus and thousands of third-party websites and channels including Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, TripAdvisor and more in the formats and delivery methods required, ensuring an accurate and consistent brand presence online.

Individual Best Western properties have the opportunity to further enhance their online presence using VFM Leonardo’s VBrochure Online Merchandising System|–|a unique product that will enable Best Western properties to better merchandise online by displaying photos and rich media alongside text descriptions in a highly-compatible multimedia viewer on thousands of travel websites, bestwestern.com and their individual hotel websites.

“We have seen impressive results since we started distributing rich media across VFM Leonardo’s expansive network. Adopting their VScape platform was a natural step to bring greater efficiency to the process. We have observed first hand, that travel shoppers who view hotel rich media are 76% more likely to book than those who don’t. We are optimistic that Best Western properties that take advantage of the VBrochure product will see similar results,” said Dorothy Dowling, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Best Western International.

Best Western has chosen VFM Leonardo’s VBrochure product as the preferred method for their hotels to distribute rich media. Best Western properties that wish to also have the hotel photos distributed by Best Western corporate displayed with rich media (virtual tours, videos and/or Flash presentations) and descriptive text in a highly-compatible multimedia viewer across the VNetwork can do so using VFM Leonardo’s VBrochure Online Merchandising System – providing a more engaging experience for travel shoppers and driving more bookings. Contact VFM Leonardo to learn more.

“We value the long and mutually beneficial relationship we have enjoyed with Best Western over the years. We are delighted to provide them with an effective tool to improve the efficiency of their visual content distribution and give their hotels a valuable opportunity to further enhance their hotel’s presence with rich media and drive more bookings,” states Paolo Boni, president & CEO, VFM Leonardo.

About Best Western International
Best Western International is THE WORLD’S LARGEST HOTEL CHAIN®, providing marketing, reservations and operational support to over 4,000* independently owned and operated member hotels in 80* countries and territories worldwide. An industry pioneer since 1946, Best Western has grown into an iconic brand that hosts 400,000* worldwide guests each night. Equally committed to the business and leisure traveler, Best Western recently embarked on a mission to lead the hotel industry in customer care. World Vision is the charity of choice for Best Western in building the world’s largest family, with our hotels and staff sponsoring children in need around the globe. Our partnerships with AAA/®CAA®, Michael Waltrip Racing™ and Harley-Davidson® help guests make the most of every trip. For the fastest way to a free night, join Best Western Rewards®, the only hotel frequency program that’s truly global. For more information or to make a reservation, please visit www.bestwestern.com.

*Numbers are approximate and can fluctuate.

About VFM Leonardo
VFM Leonardo is a technology leader in online visual content management and distribution for the hotel industry. VFM Leonardo’s VScape® and VBrochure™ products leverage the distribution capabilities of the VNetwork™, the most universally accepted and largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry. VFM Leonardo offers the most effective digital asset management and online merchandising systems available today with over 1,000,000 visual images (photos, virtual tours and videos) for 90,000 hotels worldwide currently in distribution across the VNetwork. All four global distribution systems (GDSs) - Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan - as well as Pegasus source hotel visual content exclusively through VScape. Tens of thousands of travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals; Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and more also source visual content through VScape, many exclusively. For more information about VFM Leonardo, visit www.vfmleonardo.com. Follow us on Twitter@VFMLeonardo.
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Media Contact:
Julie Vieth
Communications Specialist
VFM Leonardo, Inc.
877-593-6634 / 416-263-5446
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