Phoenix, Arizona 
- Best Western Hotels & Resorts (BWHR) announced today a major step forward in its broad distribution strategy with the acquisition of AutoClerk, Inc. AutoClerk® is a premier hotel property management system (PMS) company that has been in business since 1986. This acquisition marks a major milestone in BWHR's efforts to simplify distribution for its hotels by making technology management, revenue management, customer relationship management, reporting and connectivity simpler and easier.

"This acquisition will enable BWHR to enhance its competencies in an increasingly complex distribution landscape to drive benefits to its hotels with faster and more reliable connectivity," said BWHR President and CEO David Kong. "It will also allow us to implement technology solutions to help our hotels become more effective in servicing its guests, simplify management of rates and inventory and improve management reporting."

BWHR has been on a journey of amazing transformation over the past several years. Recently BWHR was named one of the world's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, expanded its portfolio to 16 dynamic brands reaching new guests in every chain scale segment including luxury, and won a record number of industry awards and accolades. A key focus for the company's continued success is ensuring it has a robust, resilient, secure and scalable distribution platform.

A critical component of the platform is the PMS. This partnership with AutoClerk will enable BWHR to drive unique benefits to its hotels.

Current and new AutoClerk customers not associated with BWHR will also benefit from BWHR's planned investments in the system's infrastructure and development resources to improve system performance. In addition, BWHR has plans to provide connectivity solutions and integration capabilities to AutoClerk's customers regardless of their brand affiliation.

Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Interim President and CEO Rachel Humphrey stated, "The products and solutions offered by AutoClerk, a preferred PMS technology that AAHOA members can access for an affordable price, will only grow stronger with BWHR's backing. We are pleased to continue our partnership with a company that has a proven track record and technical expertise that AAHOA members can trust."

About AutoClerk, Inc.

AutoClerk has been building mission-critical software for the hospitality industry since 1986. Serving both independent and major hotel brands in North America —including Best Western Hotels & Resorts and RLH Corporation— building robust, dependable and intuitive property management systems (PMS) capable of interfacing with over 50 hospitality technology platforms, including eight central reservation systems.

AutoClerk has pioneered a variety of hospitality technologies. The 2003 launch of ResOnTheWeb™ was one of the world's first fully integrated PMS web-booking engines, and the company's pure-cloud PMS technology is simplicity itself, requiring only a device with a browser and Internet connection. AutoClerk was an early PMS adopter of credit card tokenization and EMV (chip) technologies. Pushing tokenization to a logical extreme, AutoClerk's cloud PMS data center is one of the very few PMS data centers that does not store, process or transmit sensitive cardholder data.

Based in Northern California, AutoClerk is independently operated and its loyal customer base is supported 24/7 by an in-house dedicated staff, all with hands-on professional experience in the hospitality industry. For more information, visit autoclerk.com.

About BWH Hotel Group®

BWH Hotels is a leading, global hospitality enterprise comprised of three hotel companies, including WorldHotels™, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts and SureStay® Hotels. The global enterprise boasts approximately 4,300 hotels in over 100 countries and territories worldwide*. With 19 brands across every chain scale segment, from economy to luxury, BWH Hotels suits the needs of developers and guests in every market.

*Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.