ARTICLE - BEST WESTERN PREMIER IN NOV.

THE BEST WESTERN PREMIER WILL OPEN IN NOVEMBER
(Haiti Libre) -

The Best Western Hotel Premier, whose opening is scheduled for November in Pétion Ville "will be the first U.S. branded hotel on the island," declared Rich Cortese, vice president of Aimbridge Hospitality, the Dallas-based firm that will manage the hotel. With its seven floors and 106 rooms, the hotel will cost the group Carabimmo, more than $10 million. Locally funded, it will be largely owned by Haitians and will create 150 direct jobs, exclusively Haitian.

Mark Williams, vice president of North American development for Best Western indicated that this will be the fifth Best Western in the Caribbean, and its first in Haiti. "The service will be five-star", explaining that there will be two lounges, a spa, 24-hour doormen and concierge service, as befits a hotel designed to facilitate business. With a large lobby bar on the ground floor, a restaurant bar upstairs with a beautiful view of Port-au-Prince and 2,000 square feet of meeting space. Each room will include a 40 inch flat screen TV. The hotel will have Wi-Fi throughout, as well as 24-hour laundry service.

Rich Cortese indicates that rates will be between $170 and $235 dollars and the Best Western Premier, will target business travelers, aid workers (NGOs), entrepreneurs, families of the Diaspora, and tourists, saying that he felt safe in Haiti. Mark Williams, who visited Haiti for the first time this month, abounds in the same direction. "It’s just like any other country that you don’t know about, and you take precautions", stressing that the new government is taking steps to significantly improve tourism in the country.