Dive Brief:
- BWH Hotels will collaborate with Tesla to bring EV charging stations to its North American properties, the company announced Dec. 13.
- BWH Hotels, which comprises WorldHotels, Best Western Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotels, will begin installing Universal Wall Connectors at select hotels in 2024, with plans to expand the offering internationally later.
- BWH’s partnership with Tesla follows a similar one between Hilton and the electric vehicle company, as well as several others by hotel companies to offer EV chargers to guests who increasingly demand the amenity.
Dive Insight:
Tesla’s Universal Wall Connectors are designed to charge any North American EV, therefore catering to guests with various car models.
Michael Morton, vice president of brand management and member services at BWH, said the collaboration “underscores BWH Hotels' unwavering commitment to sustainability and dedication to delivering exceptional guest experiences."
Additionally, travelers will soon be able to filter hotel results on BWH’s website to show only those that include EV charging stations.
BWH declined to share the number of EV chargers it plans to install, or which properties it expects to install them at first.
BWH isn’t the first hotel company to partner with Tesla on EV chargers. In September, Hilton announced that it would deploy 20,000 EV chargers across 2,000 hotels in North America starting in 2024.
That same month, Marriott tapped EV Connect as its “preferred” EV charging provider.
Both Marriott and Hilton had previously worked with EV charging provider LNG Electric. In May, LNG Electric announced that it would deploy EV charging stations at more than 13,000 hotels across the U.S., including at Marriott International, Hilton and Choice Hotels International properties.
On a smaller scale, Georgia-based EV charging provider EnviroSpark announced in August that it had partnered with AD1 Global to bring charging stations to the company’s 17 hotels across Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut and Maine.
Tesla, meanwhile, recently recalled 2 million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada over software issues related to its driver assist feature, Autosteer.
