BWH Hotels has opened the GLō Best Western Olive Branch, an 80-room, newly constructed property in Olive Branch, Mississippi, extending the brand's footprint into one of the Mid-South's fastest-expanding suburban markets. The hotel, located at 8853 Midsouth Drive in DeSoto County, targets both corporate transient and leisure demand generated by the broader Memphis-metro ecosystem.
The Market Case
Olive Branch sits inside a dense logistics and light-industrial corridor anchored by distribution networks and large healthcare and manufacturing employers — a demand profile that has made DeSoto County among Mississippi's highest-growth counties over the past decade. Yogi DeSoto Corporation, the owning entity, and its managing partner Chintu Patel cited the market's business development trajectory and a robust youth-sports-tourism sector as the primary draw. That dual-demand dynamic — corporate midweek, tournament-driven weekends — is a pattern franchisee developers have increasingly targeted in secondary suburban markets.
Amy Hulbert, Vice President of Boutique and Upscale Brands at BWH Hotels, positioned the opening as consistent with GLō's broader strategy of capturing upscale-select demand in high-growth suburban nodes rather than urban cores. "Olive Branch is a dynamic hub for logistics, healthcare and manufacturing," Hulbert said, "and this new property provides the perfect blend of contemporary design and character for those visiting the Memphis area."
Property Specs
The property was built by Patel Construction to GLō's prototypical layout, differentiated by curated local artwork referencing regional cultural destinations. Amenity programming leans into outdoor social spaces — pergola-shaded seating, outdoor grilling stations, and a fire pit — alongside a fitness center with sightlines to an outdoor pool. The F&B and amenity package is calibrated to the extended-stay and weekend-leisure mix common to suburban select-service hotels, where guests increasingly expect social gathering infrastructure beyond a standard breakfast bar.
Guests earn and redeem points via Best Western Rewards, BWH's loyalty program, which allows point transfers to airline miles and gift cards — a loyalty structure the company uses as a retention lever across all 18 of its brands.
Network Context
BWH Hotels operates approximately 4,300 hotels across more than 100 countries under brands spanning economy through luxury, including WorldHotels, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, and SureStay Hotels. GLō sits in the boutique-select tier, competing against concepts like Marriott's Moxy and IHG's Voco for design-forward travelers who want upscale finishes without full-service overhead. Unit growth in that tier has been driven largely by franchise development in secondary and tertiary markets, where land costs and construction economics are more favorable than in primary metros. Operators in the segment have found that select-service properties in suburban growth corridors can deliver competitive RevPAR without the staffing complexity of full-service assets.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
