Best Western Hotels chief to retire

Keith Pope, the managing director of the company behind more than 270 hotels, has confirmed that he is retiring.

In an advertisement placed in a Sunday newspaper, Best Western GB said it was looking for “a visionary, forward-thinking personality full of bright ideas, someone with a track record of doing things differently... and bags of energy”.

Best Western said it was also looking for somebody who possessed gravitas and was technically savvy. The advert was placed in a section of the paper featuring jobs with six-figure salaries.

Best Western GB is part of Best Western International, which is based in Phoenix, in the US.

The brand was established in 1946. The group expanded in the 1960s and started to license the brand overseas. Today it is represented in 80 countries at 4,000 hotels, which are all independently owned and managed.

Interchange Hotels and Consort Hotels joined forces to start the British arm of Best Western in 1999. The closing date for anyone interested in applying for the MD’s job is January 21.