"Ideal Western International, Inc. possesses the very best Western Hotels & Resorts brand name, which it accredits to over 4,500 resorts worldwide. [2] The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix az, Arizona, [3] consists of more than 2,000 resorts in The United States and Canada. [4] The brand was founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946. Since May 2019, David Kong is the president and CEO of Best Western as well as Dorothy Dowling is the chief advertising and marketing policeman.

In 1964, Canadian resort owners signed up with the system. Best Western then expanded to Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand in 1976.

In 2002, Ideal Western International introduced Best Western Premier in Europe and also Asia. (The various other hotels in the chain were referred to as Finest Western.) In 2011, the chain's branding system-wide transformed to a three-tiered system: Finest Western, Ideal Western And Also, and Best Western Premier."